The Very Important Mission
by ReaderGuy123
Summary: Lupusregina, Entoma and CZ Delta are given a mission to gather information on a city within the borders of the Baharuth Empire. They decide that this mission is of the upmost importance and will go beyond what Lord Ainz expects of them.
1. Assignment

Lupusregina, Entoma, and CZ kneeled before Lord Ainz, waiting for him to give out his orders. It had been a few weeks since Nazarick found itself transported to this new world and for the most part, Ainz had made the decision to keep Nazarick and most of its inhabitants a secret from the outside world. The exception being Ainz, the pleiades, and some of the floor guardians who all took part in gathering information from the new world in order to prepare for Nazarick's inevitable reveal.

Ainz adjusted himself from behind his desk and addressed the three sisters. "Lupus, Entoma and Shizu, thank you for answering my call, as you know we are still working on gathering information from this new world and this is exactly why I have called you three here today."

"To keep this brief, your mission will be to explore a city to the North of Nazarick, and within the borders of the Baharuth Empire. You will travel by foot and submit daily reports, you will also make sure to keep a low profile while outside of Nazarick." Ainz concluded his speech and waited for the maids before him to ask their questions.

Lupus raised her hand and began speaking after receiving a head nod from Ainz. "Lord Ainz, may I ask why we are traveling by foot? Would it not be easier to teleport ourselves to this city?"

"I understand your confusion, but rest assured that this is not an oversight. By traveling on foot, you will be able to confirm landmarks and small villages that are marked on the map we have obtained. You may also learn things about this world while making your way to this city." Ainz finished, then directed his attention to Entoma who had thrown up her hand.

"Lord Ainz, is there anything in particular that we are looking for?"

Ainz brought up his hand to his chin and then spoke, "Like I said, confirm that the map is accurate, but it would be best to interact with the humans of this world and to keep an eye out for anything that may have value for Nazarick, such as new spells or equipment."

Shizu was the last to ask a question. "Lord Ainz, what do you wish of us when it comes to hostile humans?"

Ainz's nonexistent brows furrowed as he spoke. "Like I said keep a low profile, but defend yourselves if necessary, do not go overboard. If the enemy is more powerful than all of you, contact Nazarick immediately. Is there anything else?"

Ainz waited a few seconds for any new questions to be raised, only to be met with silence. "Alright then, for now go to your rooms and prepare yourselves, I will have a regular maid leave your alternative outfits, a map of the path you should follow, and some supplies, Understood?"

"Yes Lord Ainz!" All three exclaimed. They promptly bowed then left Ainz's office and continued on to their rooms.

Ainz waited for all three to be out of his office before internally deflating and laying his head on the desk in front of him. He thought to himself... _Aw man, it's a lot harder than I thought to keep everyone in Nazarick busy, but at least this isn't something that could be messed up. I already got Yuri at Carne Village, Solution accompanying Sebas, and Narberal acting as my adventurer partner. There wasn't much left to be started, but man do they get depressed when they don't get orders from me...well at least this should keep them busy and it should be a super simple mission. They'll be happy to just be working and I can probably give them a proper mission when they return._

Ainz lifted his head as he heard someone enter his office, it was Albedo. To be more specific, it was Albedo with a stack of reports from the pleiades and floor guardians who were already on missions in this new world. Ainz internally sighed as he prepared to sort through this paperwork, some things never changed, even in a different reality...

Lupus was the first to speak as the three battle maids left Ainz's office, "Finally! We get to stretch our legs, and do something for Lord Ainz! Are you two as excited as me?!"

Entoma raised her arms and exclaimed, "Yes, we can finally show Lord Ainz that we are worthy of serving him and see this new world. What about you Shizu? Aren't you glad Lord Ainz shows so much faith in us?"

CZ kept her composure, "Yes, Lord Ainz is the nicest of all the supreme beings, we should-"

"That's the spirit Shizu!" Lupus interrupted, "We will do this mission easy and have some fun on the way!"

"Now that I'm thinking of it, we were never told the name of this city we are traveling to...do you know Lupus?" Entoma asked her bigger sister.

Lupus had a confused expression as she thought, soon after CZ spoke up, "It will probably be on the map, Lord Ainz always thinks ahead, if I had to guess this mission might also serve as a test for us. This is why we should-"

"Of course! Lord Ainz is freakin' amazing after all! He probably wants us to figure out some stuff on our own! That's why he was so brief with us!" Lupus said when the thought finally hit her, much to CZ's annoyance.

"So, Lord Ainz is giving us a mission that seems simple enough, when in actuality he is expecting us to go beyond?" Entoma uttered as she brought her arms close to her chest.

"Seems like that's the case! Lord Ainz can only accept the best after all!" Lupus said as she brought both hands to a fist.

CZ waited for both of her sisters to finish with all their excitement before she spoke up again, "Since it seems like this is indeed a test, we should go over the map together and make plans for any situation."

Lupus looked over at her shorter sister and nonchalantly said, "Shizu, we need to focus on leaving as soon as possible, to show Lord Ainz that we can get things done quick!"

CZ's expressionless face then shifted its gaze to Lupus, "Moving quick has its advantages, but-"

"Ok then, we move out as soon as possible! Entoma and Shizu, I'll meet you two just outside Nazarick!" Lupus then ran off to prepare for their adventure. Leaving Entoma excited and CZ letting out a near silent groan at Lupus's uncaring nature.

 _A little while later..._

CZ Delta currently stood in her room and had just finished collecting the map, her designated supplies and her alternative outfit sent from Lord Ainz. Her first instinct was to try and study the map, as it was integral to the overall mission, but then decided to wait so she could go over it with her sisters, no matter how frustrating it might seem. She then inspected her supplies which basically consisted of a few potions and two pistols, which she figured Ainz chose for their inconspicuous nature, her much larger rifle didn't exactly convey "low profile" as Ainz wanted. Finally, she looked to her outfit, it was a long brown leather coat and black combat style boots. It was a simple outfit, but CZ figured that it was just enough for this type of mission. She would wear this outfit along with her camouflage scarf and gloves. CZ changed into her outfit and put her potions, pistols and map inside of the long leather jacket she wore, afterwards heading outside to meet up with her two sisters.

CZ reached the entrance of the great tomb of Nazarick, seeing Lupus and Entoma waiting for her just outside. Getting a closer look, she could see that they had also opted to change into their alternative outfits immediately. Lupus seemed to have a similar outfit to that of Enri from Carne Village, except that the color scheme was much darker and the sleeves only reached to her shoulders. Lupus also had on leather arm bracers and still dawned a hat that was pretty much like her original, only matching to the rest of her outfit. To finish off the look, Lupus also had a mace hanging from her side, it seemed as though her giant axe weapon didn't meet the "inconspicuous" requirements just like CZ's rifle.

CZ then inspected Entoma's appearance with only a fraction of the attention she had paid to Lupus. This is because Entoma was simply wearing what looked to be a dark red robe with a hood draped over her head and face mask covering where her mouth would be, leaving her "eyes" the only thing exposed. It made sense though, as Entoma was the least "human" when it came to physical appearance, her "hair" would raise questions to anyone who came in close contact and her mouth never moved. Overall CZ was pleased with the costumes that Lord Ainz had provided for them, the only experience any of the three battle maids had with this new world was through Carne Village. CZ concluded that if what they saw in Carne Village was any indicator for how the rest of this new world dresses, the three of them should blend in optimally.

"Finally! Shizu, we've been waiting out here for you! Are you ready to head out?" Lupus exclaimed as CZ walked up to her and Entoma.

"Yes, I've also received the map from Lord Ainz." CZ said as she pulled out the map from her leather coat and unrolled it. "We should go over it together, it looks like-" Just as she was getting ready to analyze the map with her sisters, Lupus's excitement got the better of her as she snatched the map out of her hands.

"Great! Now let's see..." Lupus squinted her eyes and stuck out her tongue in a playful way to study the map. As she did this CZ, slightly annoyed, spoke up.

"Lupus, we should go over it together and make a plan for how we choose to approach things. It would be unwise to-"

"Shizu you worry too much, as the youngest sister it's only natural, rest assured your big sisters are here to make sure things go smoothly." Entoma cheerfully added as she tilted her head slightly.

For CZ, this was the one interruption she could not tolerate and shifted her gaze from Lupus to Entoma. "Entoma, that's wrong. YOU are the little sister." CZ said this slightly raising her voice and clenching her hands into fists.

"Shizu are you alright? Did you hit your head on the way to us?" Entoma replied with an especially sarcastic tone, also bringing up her long robe sleeve over her already covered mouth in order to exaggerate her "worry" even further.

Shizu approached Entoma and at this point had even managed to attract Lupus's attention. "Entoma, you need to stop acting like a child and listen to me, I don't want to have to punish you." CZ then proceeded to bring up her fists and change her posture to that of a boxing pose.

"Shizu are you acting out on purpose? Then I suppose it can't be helped, I'll have to correct your behavior through force." Entoma then proceeded to bring up her arms over her head in order to strike an intimidating pose, although with the oversized robe she wore simply looked like a kid playing ghost with a blanket.

As the two began circling each other like sharks in water, Lupus spoke up, "Come on you two! You can play later, right now we need to get going! Lord Ainz is counting on us!" As soon as she said this, both of her sisters stopped circling and shot each other a look as if to say: we will settle this later.

As the two short maids approached Lupus, Entoma quickly spoke up, "Lupus don't you agree that Shizu is the little sister?" As Entoma asked her question, CZ shot Entoma an annoyed glace and also spoke up, "Lupus, Entoma seems to be confused, please correct the situation by giving her the facts."

Lupus at first expressed a confused look then smiled and replied, "Both of you are little sisters to me, so it doesn't really matter. Now let's get going!" Lupus then began walking towards their first destination.

Entoma and Shizu, disappointed at her answer began to follow her and decided to figure it out later. CZ also applied this solution to her desire of wanting to go over the map and form a proper plan, they would simply need to figure it out later.


	2. Cedar Village Part 1

"Hmm…it looks like the city is called _Morthal_." Lupus said in a gleeful tone. The three battle maids were currently traveling northeast in order to connect with a path that would lead them directly to this city. They were walking through straight wilderness, trekking over the plains that Nazarick had found itself planted on. Lupus had kept the map since swiping it from CZ earlier, Entoma had not yet looked at it and expressed no such desire, while CZ had been occasionally glancing over at Lupus. Lupus had decided at that moment to go over the map in order to keep her sister happy and increase the chances of success in the mission, she had to remind herself that Lord Ainz was expecting them to go beyond.

"By the looks of it, we'll run into a small village a while after finding the main path, although it doesn't seem to be named on the map…maybe it's new!" Lupus looked over at her sisters to see what they thought of it.

Entoma spoke first, "Then maybe they won't mind a few missing people here and there, I could go for a snack. The green biscuits I brought are good, but humans can really hit the spot."

"No Entoma- "CZ quickly interjected. "-Lord Ainz said to keep a low profile. Humans are likely to notice when their own go missing."

Entoma thought for a moment then said, "Fine, maybe there will be other things to try, Lord Ainz also said to keep an eye out for new stuff…"

At this point Lupus was satisfied with the feedback, or just wanted to talk about something more interesting. "Sooo…what do you guys think it is that Lord Ainz wants us to find?"

"We have just begun our mission, we do not have sufficient information to be making wild guesses." CZ had replied with a rather bored expression.

Entoma thought for a while before replying. "Hmmm…. maybe we're looking for a…world item…what do you think Lupus?"

"I know Lord Ainz has been looking for resources outside of Nazarick. He has that boy back at Carne Village working on potions, so maybe he wants us to look for interesting people and bring them back to Nazarick."

CZ once again interjected at this statement. "Lord Ainz said to keep a low profile, kidnapping people has a high probability of alerting others."

"Shizu you overthink everything! Let's just agree to take action based on what we think will benefit Nazarick, that is the end goal after all." Lupus ended her statement with a sly smile and proceeded to wrap her arms around her sisters, bringing them closer. While Entoma remained silent, CZ let out an exhale and looked up at her older sister.

"Very well…" CZ finally added, deciding that as long as Lord Ainz and Nazarick benefited, they would accomplish their mission. Lord Ainz is the nicest supreme being after all and wouldn't expect them to think on his level.

 _Meanwhile up ahead on the main path that the maids would soon find themselves on…_

Briley had rolls of sweat running down his face and back. He was slightly panting, but at the same time managed to keep his composure strong. He ran his hand through his dark brown hair and then rubbed the same hand on his pant leg to get rid of the sweat. He was currently returning to his home village from a supply run and had those supplies in a sack slung over his back. The trip always took a full day and he would always leave before the sun came up. As he looked towards the sun, he guessed that he had about an hour or two of daylight left, although he was only about half an hour from the village, so it was not a huge problem. Briley had been doing these types of runs alone since he was 15 years old and was currently 19, although some people say he looked older. He was carrying more than usual today and was constantly having to pull the sack to keep it from dragging on the ground or leaning him backwards. Just as he pulled forward with a lot of his force, he lost his grip and the sack of supplies fell behind him spilling some of its contents from the opening that was only being tied closed with a loose piece of rope.

"Dammit." Briley took this time to stretch out his legs and back, silently being thankful for the break that he would not have given himself. As he was stretching, his mind thought back to the incident that occurred in his village just a few days back, it had been a situation stressing him out since it happened. A large group of bandits had come to their village and demanded supplies, their village being as small as it is, could only offer scraps. In the end, the bandits promised they would be back for more and made some very disturbing threats that would likely destroy the village. Briley was one of the few who took the threat seriously, to his surprise most of the villagers thought that nothing would happen. They were a small village and nothing to this scale has ever happened, not being named on most maps probably had something to do with it.

Briley continued to get on his knees to stuff the things that fell out back into the sack. As Briley finished his cleanup, he slung the bag of supplies over his back once again and took a couple of steps before a noise caught his attention. Glancing over to his left he could hear what sounded like voices, maybe female voices? Briley held his position for a moment before finally deciding that there were indeed at least two girls coming from the wilderness to his left. He'd run into people before of course, but it was a bit strange having them come from off the path. Eventually they emerged and immediately attracted his attention. The first one that caught his eye was the tallest of all three and had an exotic look to her. She had brown skin, beautiful golden eyes and red hair that came down in twin braids behind her, all this came together to create an alluring figure. The second girl was significantly shorter and had a fair complexion, opposite to that of the first girl, she had long red gold hair that came down behind her. She also had an eyepatch covering one of her eyes, but the other was a dazzling emerald green color. The eyepatch certainly didn't take away from her cuteness, it complimented her. The third girl…he couldn't get a good look as she was covered by a robe, but from her eyes could tell that she probably hid a real beauty like the other two. As he stood there visually taking them all in, they quickly noticed him and began to visually inspect him as well. As the three beautiful women shot their glances over to him, he instinctively stood straighter and puffed his chest out slightly, their stares could certainly intimidate any man with even the smallest insecurity. Eventually after an awkward couple of seconds, not that it seemed to bother the three, he decided to speak up.

"ahem, uh…hey" Briley managed to get out, cringing at his own shyness, he rarely became nervous in front of girls. The tallest girl immediately replied.

"Hey there! You look like you're having trouble carrying all that, I'd hate to be you! Puhahaha!" She let out an amused laugh at the end of her comment and placed her hands on her hips.

Briley, surprised at her joke, blushed slightly and replied, "I…um, it's not that heavy really, I do this pretty often. Why are you guys coming out of the woods?"

The red-haired girl replied again, "Maybe we're on the look out for a man to absolutely destroy…" The girl ended her reply with a rather lustful smile and closed the gap between herself and Briley.

Although this should've had a sexual implication, the girl's eyes seemed to have changed drastically and had an unsettling gleam to them. Briley's face started to heat up again and his heart started to race, but even with this managed to spit out a reply.

"I…uh…well I mean, I don't know if that- "

"Just kidding! Hahaha! Relax it's not like I'm gonna eat you or anything!" She now stood in front of him and met him at eye level.

Briley was now feeling the pressure of the situation in its entirety but managed to calm himself and attempt to speak up once again.

"Right… so who are you three?"

"I'm Lupus, this is Entoma and over here is Shizu." She said motioning to the other two girls. "We're doing some traveling and it looks like our next stop is a village. You know anything about it?"

Briley noticed she had not asked for his name but chose to give it anyway, "I'm Briley and yes actually, I live in that village down the road from here, we call it Cedar Village. If you want you can just follow me, it's only about half an hour away."

Lupus looked over at Entoma and CZ waiting for their response. Entoma simply shrugged and CZ blinked. "Looks like they're up for it! Besides interacting with people was one of our goals!"

Briley wasn't sure what she meant by the last part but didn't let it phase him, there had been enough of that for one day.

 _A short time later..._

The four had been walking for several minutes, in silence, and at this point Briley realized that he was still feeling intimidated by the trio's looks. He looked over trying to decide who to strike up a conversation with, Lupus was very beautiful but had a rather crude sense of humor. So that left Entoma and Shizu, neither looked like they were up for a lengthy talk, nevertheless he decided to give it a shot. He moved himself closer to the short eye patched girl and took a breath before speaking up.

"So, Shizu- " She kept her head and eyes forward. "-how do you three know each other? Did you grow up in the same place?"

"Yes."

"Oh okay. If you don't mind me asking where are you three heading? Your friend mentioned that you're traveling and that my village was just a stop. Are you visiting family, looking for work, or maybe just finding new horizons?"

"Just traveling." Shizu replied half heartily.

"Right…" Briley took this response to mean that she didn't want to share such information. Still he found it odd that these three were "traveling" alone with seemingly no protection, other than Lupus's mace that was hanging from her side. Other than that, he wondered if these three were aware of the dangers of traveling in such a small group and with seemingly no supplies. Although as he thought this it hit him that he was doing the same thing, but he was alone, so he only had to watch his own back. Still, they've seemed to be doing fine up to this point and they did not seem concerned at all about bandits or dangerous animals.

"Have you guys run into any trouble during your travels?" Briley asked, still trying to be friendly.

"No."

"Alright…good. That's good." At this point Briley decided that this girl was probably just shy and moved over to Entoma.

"Hey, Entoma. So, your friend Shizu mentioned you three have known each other a long time, you probably have a lot of funny stories together right?" Briley decided to try and talk about something more lighthearted.

Entoma shifted her head over slightly in thought then said, "Hmm…a few I guess." Entoma then changed the topic suddenly. "Do you have any meat in your supply bag? I could go for a snack."

Briley was taken a bit back by her response, one because she sounded very young, and second because she implied that she would consume raw meat. Although, this wouldn't really be an issue because he had no such meat in his bag.

"Sorry, I don't. I'm carrying mostly medical supplies. When we get to the village though, I can probably get some for you."

"Ok!" Entoma replied, at the same time taking out a green biscuit and proceeding to eat it secretly under her cloth face mask.

It was at this point Briley decided to disengage from the conversation and continue walking with his thoughts instead. Maybe these three were just used to a different kind of talk that he wasn't stirring up. They would reach the village in just a short while, so maybe he could talk about that when they arrived. Still, their looks and behavior would certainly start some interesting conversation at the village, they didn't get many visitors, besides those bandits.

 **A/N:** **Hey, this is Readerguy. Decided to leave some afterthoughts this time. First off thanks to Kuroi Tetsu and Old Testament for the reviews. To Kuroi, I went back and fixed up some of what you suggested. This is my first story and wasn't sure if I would continue but now I am a little more sure of myself. This story is just supposed to be something for fun. Next update will be longer and probably be out later than this one was, I got university stuff and work in the coming days. Thanks if you bookmarked and favorited too.**


	3. Cedar Village Part 2

Briley and the three pleiades had finally arrived at Cedar Village and were currently overlooking their destination after following the path up a small hill. To no surprise, the village was as small as the map had made it out to be. A river ran to its left and had a sawmill with a water wheel attached to it sitting close by. Next to this were five buildings that were separated by the path, two resided to the left and three to the right. After the buildings, several circular huts served as housing to the permanent residents of the village. All this was enclosed by a wooden fence that stopped at two points, because of the river, and left two entrances where the main path ran through the village. The crop fields and animal pens, which seemed to be the purpose for such a village existing, sat outside the fence. Overall, the village seemed simple and nothing stood out, it certainly made sense as to why it was not named on most maps.

Lupus brought one hand to her hip and the other up to her face, pinching her chin.

"This is it? Are there actually humans living here? Looks kinda miserable and deserted." She said, not really having any high expectations considering it was not Nazarick.

Briley was by no means a devout patriot for his village, it was simply the only thing he'd ever known, but felt the need to at least justify its existence. He had completely missed the fact that Lupus referred to the people as "humans", it probably had something to do with the fatigue that was starting to weigh heavy on him after a long supply run.

"Not much, I know. But the people are good, they work hard and the nature around the place can be nice to look at sometimes." He said, trying to keep a positive attitude.

"The fence is made of wood. It would not stop an attack." CZ added with an analytical point of view.

This statement caught Briley off guard and when he took a second to think about it, realized that he never gave the fence a serious thought. Still, he couldn't really find a positive spin to this, those bandits from a few days ago didn't necessarily attack but the fence certainly didn't stop them.

"No, I guess not…" Briley solemnly uttered. "Anyway, let's get going while we still have a little bit of sunlight left, I can show you guys around. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes, considering how small we are."

"Well aren't you just eager to escort us new comers around huh?" Lupus provocatively said with a sly smile. Briley's face heated up at this, still finding her strange sense of humor to be a deadly match with her looks.

The group of four were now entering the village and almost immediately after doing so, Briley decided that he was going to go drop off his supply bag at the shop. There was no need to carry such a heavy bag over his shoulder as he showed the three around.

"uh, hey I'm going to go drop this stuff off really quick, the shop is this building right here-" he said motioning to the structure near the fence entrance. "- I'll be right back and then I can show you all around." Briley climbed the two steps into the building's entrance and disappeared. The maids took this time to talk amongst themselves.

"Lupus, Shizu, why are we allowing this human to show us around? We've already confirmed this village's existence, why not just keep heading towards our main destination?" Entoma had inquired.

"Entoma don't you remember what Lord Ainz said? He said to interact with this new world and learn things! Besides we might just find ourselves having a little fun with these humans. Who knows what secrets they try to hide, especially in a place as remote as this." Lupus said, her eyes sharpening at her last two statements.

"Lupus is right this time, we should not overlook the smallest details. Lord Ainz did not and he now has humans working for him in Carne Village." CZ added, using Lord Ainz's recent actions as a guide.

Entoma, now with a better understanding replied, "Ok I get it now. I forgot how Lord Ainz expects us to go beyond our regular task."

"Exactly!" Lupus joyously vocalized. "It's like I said before, as long as we keep an eye out for things that will benefit Lord Ainz and Nazarick, we will have exceeded our mission! So, let's see if any of these humans have something that would interest Lord Ainz!"

 _Inside the shop…_

Briley entered the shop and looked around for the owner, Allan. He saw that Allan was not at the front desk and proceeded to walk towards the back of the store where a set of stairs led to the basement. He stood atop of the stairs and loudly called down.

"Hey Al! I got your supplies here! I'll leave them behind the counter!"

"Yes, that's fine!" an old voice hollered back

Briley turned around to go, but then remembered something he said he would do. He called back down.

"Al! You have any extra meat to sell?" Wanting to give that girl Entoma her snack.

"Nah! No more of that unfortunately! There's some apples by the grain barrels if you want them!" Allan responded

Briley was slightly disappointed but thought maybe this worked out for the best. This way he could give each of the girls something to eat. He unloaded his cargo, his tired back instantly relieving, and went to fetch the apples.

Briley stepped out of the shop to see the group of three conversing amongst themselves.

"Alright, now that I got that done, I can show you guys around a little bit and here I got these for you, there was no meat unfortunately." He said looking apologetically towards Entoma.

All three were curious as to how the food in this new world compared to Nazarick. They knew it wouldn't be as good, they simply wanted to see how far below it truly was. They each took an apple and then a bite.

Lupus was the first to react. "Wow this is bitter. Aren't apples supposed to be sweet? Well I guess I can't compare this to something that Nazer-" Lupus stopped herself then began again, "Well I suppose it's a source of food for something…" she said tossing the apple up and down in her hand.

CZ swallowed her very small bite and said, "This apple was picked too early."

Entoma brought her apple underneath her face cover, as to not show that she was using her "neck" to eat. She finished it quickly and simply replied, "I've had tastier food."

Lupus and CZ handed their portions back to Briley. Briley took them, but surprisingly was not fazed by their disappointment. Instead he was now wondering where exactly these three were from, Lupus's little sentence fumble had left him questioning himself on why he had not asked before.

"I guess we're used to the taste…by the way, I never asked where you three hailed from. It seems like wherever it is certainly held high standards."

"We'd rather not say. Now how about you give us that tour!" Lupus quickly answered.

At this point, Briley was too tired to try and dig for an answer.

"Oh, ok. Well then follow me and I'll tell you what each building does. Shouldn't take long." Briley ended by walking forward into the village and gesturing for the girls to follow.

Briley leisurely strolled throughout the village with the battle maids. He explained how the two buildings to the left worked with the sawmill to refine wood and make crafts to sell to larger cities. The three buildings adjacent to each other on the right served as an inn, a bar, and of course the store. He then walked further up to show them the housing of the people. Briley also went on to explain what kind of crops they grew and what animals they raised, but the girls seemed extremely disinterested during this part. Although the maids started to get bored, the villagers could only become more interested as Briley was showing them around. The three instantly drew the eyes of all, especially the men, and the villagers began to talk up a storm within their circles. Some saying how they couldn't believe such a beauty could be in such a remote place, referring to Lupus. Others saying that the girl with the eyepatch was cute and had such an amazing eye color. Entoma was also receiving stares but because of her robe and partial face cover up, had the villagers thinking she was some sort of assassin that acted as the bodyguard of the group. As Briley was finishing up his quick tour, he noticed another villager approaching them. When he turned his head to get a better look, he instantly recognized this person to be his good friend, Garin.

As Briley casually waved to his friend, Garin in turn approached not being able to look in the girl's direction, he was nervous. Garin finally drew close to his friend and softly spoke.

"Hey Briley, glad you're back-" Garin finally looked over at the girls, toward CZ's direction specifically. "-who's that…ahem...well I mean...who are they…not just…just her."

Briley's face scrunched up at his friend's awkwardness, not that he had done any better when first meeting these three.

"uh…hey Garin, these are-" Briley tried to begin introductions before unsurprisingly getting cut off by a certain energetic individual.

"You can call me Lupus! That's Entoma and Shizu! We're travelers and this village was a stop of ours. Looks like you're giving Shizu a real look over! I wonder why that is?" Lupus stepped over to Shizu and wrapped an arm around her, continuing her playful banter. "I guess she's kinda cute, and her shortness does have an endearing quality to it. Although I don't think you two have too much in common…I know! Let's poke that eye of yours out and then you can wear an eyepatch like her! It can also double as a lesson in not staring so strangely at people you've just met!" She ended her spiel with wide grin and leaning her head on top of Shizu's.

Briley not expecting such an outburst, especially since they seemed so bored before, couldn't find his words. Garin immediately felt the pressure, it didn't help that he was shorter than Lupus and thus already felt a bit inadequate about approaching the group made up of three new girls.

"I didn't mean to stare! Really, I just…I was just wondering who she was…or who you all were! You all have a good look…or I mean, a unique look! We don't get many visitors and it's good to meet new people. I'm Gar...ahem…Garin." He ended his attempt at speech with an awkward wave to the new comers, he was a shorter individual of 17 years with light brown hair and a shy demeaner overall.

To everyone's surprise Shizu was the first to speak up after this small episode, "Lupus you're drawing attention…stop it." She nearly whispered. Garin's heart skipped a beat at the sound of her soothing voice.

Lupus unattached herself from Shizu, "Sorry! Just wanted to have a little fun haha!"

Garin was left with a distinct blush as his friend Briley was finally able to get ahold of his own words. "um, anyway that's pretty much the village and I assume you guys are staying the night. I'm close with the inn owner if you want a room for a discount."

"We'll stay the night, but we don't want a discount, we're broke so we'll take it for free." Lupus said confidently.

Briley raised a brow at this, quickly trying to come up with a solution, he would feel bad if he left the girls out in the cold. Lupus was certainly an interesting person, a bit unrefined, but not a bad person as far as he knew. Entoma and Shizu seemed young and we're probably just following the older girl's lead he thought.

Garin suddenly spoke up, "If I tell the owner, Greta, that I'll work for her for a while, I'm sure she'll let you guys stay the night. Is that okay?"

Briley was surprised at his friend's tenacity and looked over at the girls to see if they were fine with the deal. They shot each other looks and then looked back as if to say, "We'll allow it".

The maids now resided in a room at the River inn, named for the village's most appealing attraction. The room was one of the few with two beds, not that the maids truly intended to sleep on them. A desk and chair took space in the corner and a shabby couch sat close to the desk. As the sisters reviewed their room, they each immediately started to formulate plans in order to pass the night. In their eyes, they had gone the extra mile to engage with the humans and accept their offerings. They felt that this was something that Lord Ainz would do in order to advance his grand plans and that they were doing good so far in terms of excelling.

Entoma had gotten an idea and chose to share it, "I haven't had meat all day, I think I'll go do some hunting."

"Entoma, hunting humans who do not pose a threat was not permitted by Lord Ainz, we can obtain meat from Nazarick." CZ responded at the same time trying to compromise with Entoma.

"Yea, but I want to have some fun, we've worked hard all day and Lord Ainz would be proud of us. Also, I didn't say I would hunt humans, I'll make sure to only go after other animals, unless I meet a hostile human, is that fine?"

CZ took a moment to think and decided to agree with Entoma's logic for once. "Fine, make sure you keep your disguise on. If you wear that and use the cover of night, your concealment to anyone is at its maximum." Entoma nodded at Shizu's suggestion.

Lupus smiled at seeing her two younger sisters agree and took this feel good moment to announce her own plans for the night, "Since Entoma is having some fun, I think I will too! I'm going to snoop around the village a little, maybe break into some homes and see if anyone has any secrets. You don't gotta worry about me getting caught!" Lupus smugly announced that last bit knowing she could use invisibility to avoid everyone.

Shizu decided that her sisters likely needed to release some energy and that's why they suggested having some "fun". While she didn't see Entoma's task as completely productive to the mission, Lupus's activity could yield good results if she found anything. Shizu herself only wanted to work on the mission.

"Very well, I will work on writing the daily report for Lord Ainz. I will also return to Nazarick and ask for some currency usable for this world, I believe I heard Lord Ainz mention he had acquired some. Perhaps this will show Lord Ainz that we can learn from a day's activities and think ahead."

"sounds good!" Lupus cheered.

With all this said, each of the battle maids began to move according to their individual tasks that they had set for themselves.

 _At the same time, in a cave not too far away._

A tall, burly man sat inside a large cave cavern running his hand through his messy mohawk. His name was Oxton, and he was the leader of the Oxmen bandit group, named after himself. He was an ex-adventurer who had left that occupation many years ago in order to build his own fortune. While adventuring was a true profession that was sanctioned by kingdoms, it was brutally competitive and paid too little. He didn't leave to become a bandit, life had just ended up that way but so far, he had no regrets. He had power and had about forty men at his command, a feat for any leader of a rag tag bandit group, usually someone would choose to seize power by killing the leader. Oxton had managed to keep this operation going by doing two things, choosing to extort small villages to keep themselves unnoticed and moving around constantly, although this was starting to prove difficult with the size of the group. Overall, his group was a cut above the rest and he was able to build this by not acting like your average fool, he was disciplined. As he was resting and thinking about the various plans they had in motion, a fellow Oxmen appeared before him.

"Yo Ox, we're all set, you coming with us or not?"

Ox sat up straighter and looked his subordinate in the eye before speaking, "No, this is an easy job and if you can't handle it, don't bother coming back unless you're looking for me to finish you."

"Alright, yea I got it, we'll see you soon." The man kept a calm demeanor but mentally scolded himself for not realizing that this mission was supposed to be simple.

This mission was the group's first step into a very lucrative business, slave trade. Oxton had avoided this trade for a while now, believing that it was too much work for the pay. Afterall it wasn't as simple as taking people and selling them. The trade had several dangers that didn't involve the law. Those dangers coming from the people they kidnapped, people fought back, people would try and rescue each other, and people would escape and spread their name. While the spreading of one's name was seen as a positive in the criminal world, he wanted to avoid this. Sometimes he wondered why he even named the group but it was convenient and the members at the time rallied around the name. The mission was simple, eight men would ride into Cedar Village in the dead of night and capture three young women and two young males, they would be easy to subdue. The eight men had the means to restrain people and conceal their presence. They had originally gone to Cedar Village to extort supplies, after seeing how isolate the village was and how soft the people were, Oxton had decided that this was a good place to start their new "business". Even though they would only take five people, they could train themselves with that and eventually move on to capturing more in the future. Oxton smiled to himself, amused by the new step they were about to take, he couldn't help but picture himself as the leader of a bandit group that had hundreds of men working under him. Yes, this would be the beginning of something far larger than anyone could have ever imagined.

 **A/N** : **Hey. Thanks to 0November0, Guest (and all future guests), and RyuujiVantek for the reviews. To November, from what I've read, nobody knows who the youngest sister really is, Ainz even avoided the topic. Chapter might be a little slow, but the fun is in the world building. Thanks for the bookmarks and favorites. Action soon to begin.**


	4. Cedar Village Part 3

Briley and Garin walk out of the River Inn, having just been able to secure a room for the girls in exchange for their labor. As they negotiated with the inn owner Greta, Briley explained how the girls seemed unfamiliar with the area and how he was worried they would run into something dangerous traveling at night. Greta being old and stubborn, said that she wasn't willing to give up anything for free, unless she was able to get two laborers and give herself a short vacation. Briley didn't intend to offer anything and was fully expecting Garin to be the one sacrificing his time, it was his fondness for a certain eye patched girl that made him think of the idea after all. Still, Briley was okay if it meant that their guests had a place to sleep for the night, even if he had to overwork himself this week.

The sun had disappeared, and moonlight covered the village, contrasting with the warm orange lights that emitted from inside the homes of the residents and the bar. At this point, Briley was exhausted and simply wanted to go home and pass out on his bed, he began to say goodbye.

"Alright, we got them their room. I think it's time for me to go home and play dead for a while." He said jokingly, finally able to unwind a bit after leaving the presence of the three attractive friends.

"Hold on Briley. I thought we could hang out for a little while, you know…talk about your trip." Garin quickly responded.

Briley raised a brow at this and then realized that Garin just wanted to know more about the girls, or maybe just about Shizu. "I don't know Garin, I'm pretty tired. I had to go on that supply run and then had to show the girls around the village. All that and now I have to help the inn and the shop, so I got a lot of work ahead of me."

Garin winced at the last part, having accidently dragged his friend into the work he had intended to do himself. "I know, sorry. But I just want to catch up a little bit, please?"

Briley sighed knowing he was already inching towards going with his friend, he had always been a people pleaser, almost to a fault. "Yeah, ok fine. We'll get something to eat and talk but only for a little bit." Briley muttered.

Garin smiled at this, then the pair proceeded to head over to the bar, which sat very close to the River Inn. The bar or as it was locally known, Ellyn's, was spacious and looked to be well kept. This was because Ellyn's was practically the only place that people from the village came to converse and enjoy themselves, such a spot would naturally be looked after by everyone. Briley and Garin sat themselves at the end of the bar counter and ordered their food, the place was surprisingly empty even for its local popularity.

"So…how did you end up meeting those three?" Garin started, not taking much interest in his food.

"I was coming back from my run and just heard them through the woods. We walked the rest of the way together, although Lupus was the only one who seemed to want to talk. She spoke to you, so you know what I mean."

Garin's face constricted thinking back to that embarrassing moment, "Yeah she did. I wasn't ready for that to be honest, I just wanted to meet her…err…I mean them, you know?"

Briley smirked at his friend's stutter, "If you wanted to meet Entoma that badly, the least you could've done was construct a decent sentence." He said sarcastically.

Garin shot a frown at his friend's direction and continued, "Come on Briley. You know who I mean, it's not like I had a master poker face."

"Yeah, I could tell, but at least you came in to save the day by getting her and her friends that room." Briley said, trying to shift the glory over to his friend in order to cheer him up.

"Yeah I guess, but you helped too, and she didn't even say anything about it." Garin replied rather gravely.

Briley breathed in and out before trying to talk again, "Look, from what I've seen, Shizu isn't one to do a lot of talking. I'm sure she was grateful, just let her shyness get the best of her."

"Sounds like that could be it. Still, you think there's a chance she is…you know…looking for someone?" Garin asked cautiously.

Briley's face fell a little as he prepared to give his honest answer, "It didn't seem like it but then again, I've only known them a short time." He decided to continue with a theory he had thought of in order to change the subject from his friend's crush. "Also, from their taste in things and looks, I think there's a good chance those three come from a rich part of the country."

"Really? I guess that could make sense, they definitely feel out of place all the way out here. You think they're really just traveling or trying to do something else, looking for something maybe?"

"I have no clue." Briley responded, scratching his head. "If I had to guess even further, they might be trying to get away from something, considering they're traveling alone."

Garin's face saddened at his friend's speculation. "Well if that's the case, I hope they end up okay. I would hate for someone hurt them or anything."

Briley's eyes closed as he took a deep breath, "Yeah, Me too…Anyway, I think I'm going to call it here man, I feel like sleeping forever."

"huh? Oh yeah, sure. Thanks for our little talk, I'll see you tomorrow."

Briley sluggishly got up and left the bar, leaving his friend thinking to himself.

 _Back with the Pleiades..._

Entoma had informed her sisters that she would roughly be following the river, she thought perhaps there would be some animals taking a late night drink. Lupus had left almost as soon as announcing her plans and was possibly too excited for her own good. CZ saw her sisters off and sat down in her room's desk, preparing to write the daily report for Lord Ainz, she was secretly thrilled to be writing something that would be read by him. CZ figured that she could hand deliver it, hopefully to Lord Ainz himself, then acquire some of the currency for this world. As she was only beginning to record their journey a knock came from the door. CZ got up, at the same time taking a grip on one of her pistols from inside her coat. As CZ opened the door, she loosened her grip, quickly assessing that the person in front of her was a non-threat.

"Uh, hey Shizu." Garin said.

Shizu blankly stared at him, before deciding to respond, "Hi." Although she wasn't well experienced in interacting with humans, she thought it was strange to have anyone from the village visiting at this time.

"I just wanted to know if you needed anything else, or maybe your friends?" Garin began to feel himself getting tense as he saw that her demeaner was stone-like.

"No. Is that all?" Shizu just wanted to return to her work.

Garin flinched slightly at her directness but was still entranced by the softness of her voice. He had not thought of a good reason to disturb the girls, he just wanted to speak to Shizu again, just in case they left early in the morning.

"Well if you need anything it's a small village, you can find me around. You guys leaving early or…" Garin trailed off trying to sound casual and not creepy, unknowing that Shizu would not care.

"We have not discussed it and they are currently sleeping. Is that all?" Shizu had added a cover for her sisters and tried to stay vague regarding their departure, even the slightest information could transfer into something important.

"Um alright, well if you have time tomorrow, I thought I could show you some cool spots outside the village." Garin had managed to ask this despite knowing it was unlikely she would say yes, he was still a stranger after all.

"It's unlikely there will be time for such activities." At this moment Shizu was slowly closing the door, deciding that this conversation was going to have little to no payoff.

Garin noticed the door closing and stumbled to get out his last word, "I uh, well ok but I'm just saying if you have time we could-" The door steadily shut. Garin's head dropped as he mentally slapped himself for seeming so obsessive. He sighed and headed off to his house, planning to wake up early in order to at least say goodbye.

CZ thought little of the interaction and went back to writing her report.

 _Meanwhile on Entoma's excursion…_

Entoma walked several feet from the river's edge, having her senses on alert for any animal that could've made for a decent snack. While she wanted to have a sample of one or two of the villagers, she was not so defiant as to do it at her own accord. Lord Ainz had ordered them to only "defend" themselves against hostile humans and CZ was constantly reminding them of it. Entoma of course loved her little sister but felt that she was constantly worrying. Lupus had been relaxed since the trip started, so obviously she was confident with the steps they had taken so far. At this moment, Entoma felt a presence several yards in front of her. She swiftly raised her sleeved "arm" and shot out an insect that had the form of a large dart. After hearing a short yelp, Entoma began to walk towards her downed target and started to salivate underneath her mask at the thought of fresh meat. She stood over what looked to be a wolf, the insect had pierced its side killing it instantly. The dart like insect independently dug itself out and crawled back inside Entoma's robe.

"Hmm, you don't look very tasty, but I suppose your legs should have a lot of decent muscle." Entoma softly spoke to herself.

She approached the animal and used a short blade to cut off one of its legs, bringing the severed limb up underneath her chin. She slightly adjusted her cloth face cover and took a sample of the wolf's leg.

A bit of tearing and chewing could be heard before she started to speak to herself again, "The fur on you is very dirty, I guess that was to be expected. Still, the meat is ok." She Continued eating. Entoma was so engrossed with her feeding that she failed to notice the two men approach her. It wasn't until one of them said something that Entoma finally noticed.

"What the…hell?"

Entoma shifted her head to the right, where the pair of men stood and tilted her head curiously after visually inspecting them.

 _Just moments before…_

Razor and Brigham were currently walking through the woods, scouting ahead of their group to make sure that their path would be empty. They were part of the Oxmen and they were damn excited to be the ones kicking off what would be something huge.

Razor, a tall, skinny and bald man couldn't stop talking about their current assignment, "Yeah, yeah. I know we're the newest members and all, but I still think they could've sent a veteran out with us. It's not like it would've taken a lot. They're just sitting back in the cave with Ox, having a grand old time."

Brigham, a scruffy looking woodsman type, stood at the same level as his partner. He sighed before replying, "Man, do you know how to shut your trap? They sent us to do the scouting precisely because we're the newbies. If we can't even do this, they got no use for us."

"Anybody could make sure a path was clear, especially at night. I'm just saying a veteran could've at least made for some interesting conversation, we could've asked him more about the group." Razor replied trying to clarify his point.

"What? You want to be entertained? Then go tell one of the veterans to do a dance for you, I'm sure he wouldn't mind." Brigham joked.

"Pfft, yeah right, and get my eyes gouged out? I'd rather spend the night with someone as boring as you!"

Brigham smirked, "Screw you. They probably sent me with you to make sure that the mosquitos don't take you out."

Razor hated skinny jokes. "You got jokes huh? Well at least I didn't-" Just as Razor was about to bring up the time Brigham got conned by a child, something caught his attention. The sound of a dog yelping could be heard and immediately stopped the two's bickering. They looked at each other and turned their head in the direction of the noise, laying their hands on the handles of their weapons.

Razor looked at his partner, "From that way, right?"

Brigham nodded and the two began making their way towards the sound. They walked slowly, making sure that their feet avoided any branches or leaves. It was dark, but the moonlight was decent tonight and up to the point that they heard the sound, it was nearly dead quiet. After getting closer to the source the two could hear what sounded like crunching, as if walnuts were being crushed. In both their heads, the worst case scenario was probably just a big animal or a villager hunting. They finally got so close that they could make out a hooded figure, they immediately thought hunter, but were surprised by his short stature. As Razor was getting ready to call out the hunter, he noticed that the figure was holding something. It was the leg of the animal it had killed, but the person was holding it up to his face and by the sounds of it, was eating it raw. At this sight, Razor couldn't help but let a phrase slip out of his mouth.

"What the…hell?"

The figure looked in their direction and pulled up their cloth mask to cover the lower half of their face. The figure then proceeded to toss the animal limb aside and turn their whole body towards them. As they got a better look, they could make out the feminine features. This would explain the shortness of the figure, but still left other questions to be answered. Since Razor was still shocked by the sight of a person eating a raw animal leg, Brigham decided to speak up at the sight of a non-threatening girl.

"Hey, who the hell are you?" At this point he had completely unsheathed his short sword.

"My name is Entoma. I was just out getting a late night snack, I'd like it if you and your friend just pretended like you didn't see me." Entoma said, daintily bringing her arms in together.

Brigham thought it was strange she referred to the limb as a "snack" but chose to get straight to the point, "Heh, sorry but we can't do that, if you're with that village down the ways, we got to make sure you don't blow our cover."

"I'm not with the village, I'm just traveling."

Brigham took a step closer and continued, "Really now? Sounds like something someone who was trying to save their own hide would say, right Razor?" He referenced his friend in order to bring him back to reality.

"Uh? Oh yeah. Listen here, Entoma was it? You sound pretty young and sure as hell seem weird, but we can't just let you go on your way. If you want, we'll make it quick in exchange for a favor or two." Razor said the last part with a salacious smile, he had also brought out his axe and held it beside him. Brigham simply smirked at his partner's suggestion.

Entoma let her arms drop and leaned her head slightly foreword, presenting a menacing look. "Are the two of you planning on attacking me?"

Razor took a few steps forward, sensing that she was about to make a run for it. "Well, we sure don't plan on letting you go on your merry way little girl."

"That's too bad. I do have permission to defend myself you know." Entoma stated, standing her ground.

"Doesn't everybody…" Razor finally closed the gap between Entoma and himself standing only a few feet from her. Brigham began to circle the two in order to get behind Entoma and make sure she didn't get away. The sound of the nearby river could be heard as the situation was building tenser.

"Since you're being such a cocky brat, I'm going to make sure you feel this!" Razor took a final step forward and swung his axe towards Entoma's Side.

He had expected to hear her scream next, but instead was surprised with the sound of metal hitting metal. His eyes went wide for a second as he examined what he had just hit, it was an oval shield with a strange design and small spikes sticking out of it. His arm painfully vibrated in return and he took a step back.

"What! You little…" Razor had not even spotted the shield previously, he had no clue how it appeared from nowhere. "Brigham!" He yelled over to his friend and signaled for the two to attack at the same time.

Brigham nodded and the two positioned themselves parallel with each other, with Entoma in the center. They shot each other a look of confirmation and lunged. Brigham saw that Entoma was keeping her shield towards Razor's attack and recoiled his short sword even further. Brigham came down with all his force but was stopped by another weapon, Entoma's own sword that was attached to her in a strange fashion. He looked over at Razor and saw that his attack was stopped again by Entoma's shield. They kept their weapons on Entoma, mounting as much pressure at they could. Entoma unnaturally turned her head side to side to get a look at both the men.

"Hmm you two are weak, and only one of you look like you'd make a good meal. Although, I do have to kill both of you considering you attacked me." Entoma added more force to her sword that was keeping Brigham busy, pushing him back.

"What…is…thi-" Brigham was clenching his teeth trying to resist Entoma's force.

Entoma eventually added one final push sending Brigham falling backwards, she then turned her attention to Razor. She still had her shield clashing with his axe, she quickly brought her sword around and swung down on her enemy.

Razor panicked, and he quickly disengaged with Entoma, dropping his axe and falling backwards. Entoma's sword just managed to clip his shoulder leaving a nasty slice and blood running down his body. Razor let out a painful scream as he clutched his shoulder and attempted to use his legs to get away from Entoma. Brigham recovered from his fall and decided to charge with all his might while Entoma was seemingly distracted. He let out a fierce war cry as he once again cocked his arm back. Entoma simply turned around and used her sword to parry Brigham's attack and swiftly follow up with a bash from her shield. This sent Brigham flying back and only stopping when his back came in contact with a tree. He spit out blood and landed on his stomach, the pain intensifying because of the spikes on Entoma's shield that had pierced his belly.

"This is sort of fun I guess, you two are no better than the wolf I killed, but at least you started it." Entoma said scratching her head with her shield arm.

Entoma turned her attention back to Razor who was still crawling away and started to walk towards him. Razor in turn saw no other option, but to beg for his life, Entoma didn't even seem to be interested in fighting before.

"Wa…Wait! I'm sorry! This was all a big misunderstanding! We thought you were someone else!"

Entoma now stood over Razor and slightly angled her head in thought. "Hmm? Who did you think I was?"

Razor didn't know what to expect from this girl and all he could do was try and stall. "I um, we just thought you were with the village! But now we know we were wrong! Please! We were just out completing an assignment! We didn't mean to anger you!"

"Humans really make a lot of mistakes. Still, I don't want to let you go, I'm on an assignment too. It would look bad if I let two humans go after seeing my weapons, you would surely report it to someone right?" Entoma's posture was straight and unmoving as she said all this.

"No! I swear we got nobody to tell! You'll never hear from us again!" Razor was nearly crying at this point and could only hope for mercy.

Entoma thought for a second, "Hmm…I think I'll kill you, it would be a lot of trouble to make sure you don't talk and that would also make it easier for Lord Ainz…I think."

Razor was hit with dread and as a last ditch effort, got on his stomach, then his knees and was planning on running for his life. As he got on his feet, he felt something pierce his back then travel through his body and out his stomach, he looked down to see a huge insect leg. He tried to scream but couldn't. His last bit of energy was used as he looked back at Entoma, seeing that her weapons were gone and that the insect leg was coming from under her robe.

"I…didn't…I…" Razor was still trying to save himself through words as his eyes rolled back and his body fell, lifeless.

Entoma brought back her seemingly out of nowhere limb and let the body fall to the ground. "You weren't that strong. I wonder why you chose to fight me?" Entoma turned around to face her last opponent.

"Hmm?" Entoma let out a surprising hum as she saw that the other human was gone. "He was the one that looked like a good meal. I suppose it's only natural that I would have to put in a little more effort into killing him." She looked down too see a trail of blood. "He couldn't have gotten too far…"

Brigham's stomach burned as he crossed the river, it had occurred to him that he was leaving a trail of blood and decided to cover his tracks by crossing the river. The water came up to his chest and was thankfully calm tonight. The river was also wide, but he had already reached the other side. He looked back, clutching his stomach, and feeling somewhat bad about leaving Razor alone.

"Sorry Razor…I'll make sure we kill this thing. I just have to get back to the others." As he started making his way forward, he heard splashing and looked back again. His heart dropped.

Entoma was being suspended by four massive insect legs and she quickly spotted him. Brigham's hands started to shake as he was trying to make sense of what he was seeing, then he ran. Entoma kept her eyes locked on him and crossed the same river with ease, using her tall legs to take a few big steps. Brigham's peripheral vision witnessed Entoma accomplish this and he cursed trying to think of something. This was when he spotted a thick tree line and figured this was his best shot at escaping, her massive legs wouldn't be able to squeeze through, he thought. As he was nearing the tree line, his legs suddenly came to a stop, slinging his body forward to the ground. He groaned in pain and spit out dirt that had been forced in his mouth. He turned his body around and saw a thick, sticky and white substance that had taped his legs to the ground. After realizing that he was stuck, he looked up to see Entoma closing in on his position. The only thing he could do was to claw at the substance and try to rip it off. As his head was looking down and he was focused on trying to release himself, he suddenly felt a presence and knew exactly who it was.

"You're not strong enough to rip my web off." Entoma menacingly stated.

Brigham stopped and suddenly felt his legs go cold, but only because he was starting to feel the horror of the situation. "Listen! I…didn't want to do this! We were just-"

Brigham's voice was cut off as one of Entoma's leg's stabbed straight through his chest, ending him instantly.

"By the sounds of it, you were just going to say the same thing as the other human, thanks for the hunt, but I should start wrapping this up."

Entoma leaned down to start feeding on her catch and managed to finish him rather quickly, she had not had any meat since the start of the mission after all. After completing her dinner, Entoma made her way back to the other human that she had killed. She inspected his body by tearing it apart and came to the conclusion that he was too skinny to have any good meat on him. She retracted her four insect limbs and once again stood on her two legs. She began to talk to herself again.

"That was pretty fun I suppose. I should head back and tell Shizu all about it, hearing such a story from her big sister should ease her stress. Lupus would find the story interesting too, if she has returned." Entoma began her walk back to the village, satisfied with the nights hunt.

 _Farther up the river path…_

Six men wait for any word from the scouts they had sent. They had sent two men to make sure that the path nearly following the river was clear, a task that should've been easy for two guys. The six men were getting impatient and were on the verge of just going forward with the main mission. The group leader spoke.

"Those damn idiots are taking too long, let's just start heading to the village. If we meet anyone on the way we kill them, including those two idiots, got it?" He shot a stare at the rest of his group, phrasing a question but really giving a command.

The group looked to the leader and nodded in agreement.

"Good, Let's go."

 **A/N: We're starting to reach the interesting parts. Thanks to FijiTION for the review (I think). Thanks to the people who are leaving more than one review too. Thanks for the bookmarks and favorites.**


	5. Cedar Village Part 4

Lupus had left their room at the River Inn to pursue what she thought would be an amusing pastime. Snooping around the village while invisible seemed like it would yield interesting, or at the very least, humorous results. She had started by exploring the two buildings next to the river, if she remembered correctly, they were the ones that processed wood or something like that. One building had nothing but a sawmill and a few stacks of uncut and cut wood…boring. The building next to this one simply held a workshop to convert some of the lumber into chairs, decorations, and other poorly crafted human things. Lupus had somewhat recalled that the human who showed them around said something about these buildings already, but she zoned out of the tour from time to time, finding the information sleep inducing.

The shop they had seen their tour guide enter was Lupus's next visit. She figured that since the store had stuff going in and out of it all the time, it might hold some interesting secrets. She crossed the dirt street and simply walked up to the door, taking ahold of the knob and turning it until she heard the lock break. Lupus snickered to herself as she entered the building, lazily swinging the door shut behind her. Scanning the room before her, Lupus's face fell to a frown. The store looked very basic and wasn't filled to the brim with mysterious artifacts or attractive looking chests as she roughly imagined. She did spot a set of stairs that enticed her, but after quickly making her way down and giving the basement a quick visual sweep, saw that it was simply a cluttered basement with random supplies stored all around.

Lupus Sighed then murmured to herself, "This has been pretty boring so far, maybe I should've just gone with Entoma, at least she gets to kill something."

Lupus didn't bother rummaging through the store, instead she opted to get to her main "attraction". She exited the store, not bothering to worry about the broken lock or even shutting the door all the way. She activated her fly ability and within seconds was hovering over the homes of the villagers, trying to decide which house to peek inside first. Her obvious first choices were the few homes which still emitted a light source from within, surely those still had humans that were up and about. The only problem that she foresaw was the small size of these homes and the fact that she was only invisible, people could still touch her. Still, she thought this was a small risk in the grand scheme of things, she just had to cure this immense boredom she was feeling.

Choosing one at random, Lupus gracefully descended and made her way through the window. As she quietly landed on the wooden floorboards of the residence, she looked up to see that she had found herself in a room with a lone man sitting at a table. This man had several bottles on the table and was currently finishing another one off, tossing said bottle behind him. He grunted as he stood up and started to make his way over to a cabinet that sat next to his bed, although he was swaying from left to right and was using his arms to balance himself. The walk from his chair to his cabinet, presumably filled with more bottles, was only about ten feet, but seemingly still quite the distance for a man as intoxicated as him. Lupus was disappointed at first, thinking that this person was too out of their mind to have fun with, but after some quick thinking, decided that she would make anything work at this point. She also got the idea that since this guy was having trouble doing something as basic as walking, that he wouldn't be too hard to trick if she disabled her invisibility. This was it! She would reveal herself and trick him into believing that she was a figment of his imagination, making him do strange and funny things. This was a pretty juvenile thing to do even for herself she thought, but since she wasn't permitted to harm a human unless she was defending herself, decided to go with it.

Lupus reversed the effects of her invisibility and cheerfully spoke up, "Hey!" She added a cutesy wave.

The man flinched and turned his head to get a look at whoever it was that just said this. He was drunk, so all he could really make out was that a person was standing in his house and had called for his attention. He squinted his eyes and after a couple seconds realized roughly what was happening.

"I'm Lupus, don't be scared, I was-" Lupus was suddenly cut off as the man angrily blurted out something nearly incomprehensible.

"What tha' hell…what're ya' doin' trynna ta rob me!" The man switched from his sluggish demeanor earlier and sprinted towards a wooden chest that sat near the entrance of his home. He practically fell onto the chest, but then proceeded to open it and dig around.

Lupus raised an eyebrow, curious as to what this man was planning to do. It was only when she saw that he pulled out a dagger, that her look changed from playful and curious to ominous and excited.

"I see...you're going to attack me right!?" Lupus exclaimed with the biggest smile on her face.

The man simply snarled and turned his body towards the intruder, fully opening his bloodshot eyes. He held the dagger in front of him, and finally ran towards Lupus, slightly bringing his arm back to pierce his opponent.

Lupus's smile grew even wider and she threw her arms out, as if she was getting ready to receive a hug. The enraged person charging took his final step as he threw his arm forward intending to stab whoever dared break into his home. The dagger was only inches away from penetrating Lupus when she gracefully pivoted one foot back, dodging the attack. She then used one hand to grab his wrist and her other arm to trap him between her side, quickly applying pressure to his wrist in order to break it. The previously agitated male now twisted his face against Lupus's back and let out a scream of pain, at the same time dropping his weapon. While Lupus was silently exploding with joy over the man's scream, she realized that it would also be inconvenient if someone else heard it. While keeping a hold on his wrist, she turned around and brought her hand to his mouth, gripping with monster-like strength and forcing him on his knees. Lupus was now biting her bottom lip and practically gushing at the sight before her, she couldn't help but to gloat.

"Wow! I can't believe you just gave it to me like you did! You really are amazing haha!" Lupus's eyes were wide as she said this, and she was practically shaking with excitement.

"Still, we could make this more enjoyable for ourselves! Alcohol is basically just poison! So, I'll heal you up!" Lupus used her healing abilities to rid the man's body of the substance that was making him somewhat insensible to the situation.

The man's foggy mind immediately cleared up and the situation he found himself in, was now even more intense. His wrist's pain was gone too, but that didn't last long as Lupus once again applied pressure in order to break it. His cries of pain were instantly stopped this time by Lupus's hand, which seemed to be gripping even tighter. It was at this moment that his body realized that he still had a free hand and in turn made a desperate attempt to grab Lupus's forearm that was keeping his mouth shut. He quickly felt that she was wearing a leather bracer and switched to trying to punch her in order to get free. He balled his hand up and recoiled back in panic, bringing his fist around as hard as he could. He made contact and had planned to scramble away as soon as her hold on him loosened, but to his surprise felt an unnatural amount of muscle on her. She simply smiled at this and spoke again.

"Now that you're all better and seem to understand the situation, let's have some fun for a while m'kay?" She closed her eyes and tilted her head as she said this.

The man, now panicking more than ever, proceeded to throw as many punches as he could with his free hand. He truly had no clue what was happening and could feel his arm tiring out as he kept making contact with Lupus's sturdy side. Lupus decided that she had enough of his flailing and used her leg to deal a massive blow to his stomach. Blood started to run down between his covered mouth and in between her fingers. This was the slowest that he managed to recover, and he looked back up again to a horrifying expression. Lupus's eyes were narrow and had a gleam to them, her smile was at its widest and slightly opened to reveal fangs, she only made one final comment.

"Don't think it'll be over soon, I've needed some fun, I can also make sure you don't die on me too fast. I really am glad you decided to attack me."

His body went cold and he felt like throwing up, why had any of this happened to him? He couldn't recall any enemies he had made of this caliber and it seemed like just seconds ago, he was prepared to pass out drunk.

 _Back with CZ at the inn…_

CZ smiled ever so slightly as she finished reading the daily report that she had written…for the third time. This report was to be read by Lord Ainz after all, and she had made sure to proofread and include as many details as possible. At this point, she was satisfied and thought that Lord Ainz would probably find the report somewhat close to his standards. All that was left to do, was to go back to Nazarick, hand deliver this report and procure currency that would work for this world and perhaps some other supplies as well. In CZ's mind, running back and forth for more supplies would most likely show that they could not think ahead or prepare for the future, they shouldn't do this too many times. She also planned to send their future reports via portal as well, Lord Ainz would find it more convenient. Therefore, picking up some extra gear, only this time, would display their critical thinking skills. Perhaps that's why Lord Ainz had given them such bare bones in terms of equipment, they had to assess based on their first day. She stood up from the desk and was about to send a portal request to Nazarick, when she heard the room door open.

Entoma entered the room and gently shut the door behind her. "Hi Shizu, I had an interesting encounter while hunting, would you like to hear the story? I'm sure it would take away some of the stress you've been feeling."

CZ had wondered how much time had passed, she had been so engaged in writing the perfect report that everything else was of minor importance. She didn't expect Entoma to know but was curious to find out about this "encounter" she had mentioned. At the same time, she was dissatisfied that it would not be included in their first report and would have to wait until the next.

"Yes. We should include your encounter in tomorrow's report, I have already finished writing today's." CZ responded, her demeanor changing from proud to critical of herself for just missing an important detail for the report.

"Great! I knew you would want to hear a story from your big sister!" Entoma enthusiastically responded.

CZ had begun to look back at the report when Entoma had started to speak again, her glare shot straight back up as soon as Entoma finished her sentence.

"Entoma…" just as she was about to point out Entoma's mistake…again. She suppressed her desire to do so in order to get back to the task at hand. "…I will be heading to Nazarick to deliver this report and obtain some currency that we can use in this world. It's also very likely I will be picking up additional supplies. I will have to listen to you tell your story when I get back."

Entoma was internally thrilled to hear about CZ's small trip, "I see…I'll go with you! Maybe there are some things I can get too, it'd also be nice just to visit Nazarick after spending time in this rundown village."

CZ had planned on going alone but saw no real disadvantage to having Entoma join her. Even if Entoma stayed, she would just stay in their room pretending to be asleep. All they really had to do, was inform Lupus of their temporary departure and come back in a timely manner.

"Very well. We will also leave a note for Lupus, explaining our absence. She will see it when she gets back and hopefully has found something of value in this village." CZ once again began to write, leaving the note for Lupus.

At the same time, Entoma contacted Nazarick asking for a portal for CZ and herself. Almost instantly, a rift appeared in their room and they both stepped through, leaving their gloomy inn room behind.

Just as soon as CZ and Entoma made their exit, the room door began to open, revealing a particularly happy Pleiades member.

Lupus strolled into the inn room they were staying at for the night with the most satisfied face she had since their mission started. As she closed the door with some flair, she turned around to speak with CZ, who she thought was just standing quietly in the corner or something.

"Shizu! I just had the most fun with a human who took an interest in me! You wanna hear the st-" Lupus realized that the room was empty and a frown formed on her face, realizing that there was no one to hear her story.

She looked around and quickly came to the conclusion that Shizu, like Entoma and herself, probably got bored and went out to have some fun. She thought this until her eyes spotted a note laying on the room's desk. Swiftly walking over and picking it up, she began to read what it said:

 _Lupus,_

 _Entoma and I have gone to Nazarick to deliver our report. We will also be acquiring currency and some extra supplies, should the need for either come up in the future. We should not be long and should return sometime soon. I recommend you stay in our room at the River Inn and wait for our return._

 _\- CZ2128 Delta_

Lupus grumbled to herself at the last part, then felt a sense of impending boredom to come. She thought that after her latest encounter, there would be some entertaining retelling of the story, especially how she made it last so long. She figured that Entoma would return and have her own story to tell, but now she was alone and was trying to think of something else to do. By now, everyone in the village was asleep and they wouldn't "offer" themselves like the last guy did. She went over to the bed and fell face first into the sheets, immediately spitting out the dust that had settled from lack of use.

"Pffft…I guess I could still head over to Nazarick, but there's really no reason for me to do that." She rolled over and stared at the ceiling. "Hurry up guys, this place is starting to get reeeeeally boring…"

 _Outside the village borders…_

Six men kneel just outside of Cedar village, eyeing the village huts that have just seemingly cut out their last sources of lights. Of these six men, one clearly stood out as the group leader, wearing a black and dark red cloak. He had twin daggers hanging on both sides of his belt, the handles covered in black wrappings. It also seemed like the same kind of wrappings covered his face, with an exception to his eyes. His gloves and boots bore the same kind of obsidian color, making them nearly lost in the dark. Kruath took a deep breath and began speaking to his five men.

"Since those two idiots got themselves killed by wolves, we will be doing this a little differently."

Kruath and his assigned men had already made their way through the forest path they previously decided on. Initially, they had sent two of the newer members of the Oxmen to make sure the path was clear of traps or other people. After waiting for the all clear for such a long time, they had decided to move forward, keeping their guard up. On their way, they had discovered the torn apart body of Razor and found no sign of Brigham. After spending just a minute around the scene, they had discovered the body of a wolf too. Kruath had quickly suspected that the two men were attacked by a pack of wolves and were shred to pieces or dragged away. This was also what he told his men to assume, but if he was being honest with himself, found the scene quite strange. To start, the wolf had a clean piercing wound to its side, both Brigham and Razor were only carrying slashing weapons. Razor's torso had a gaping hole through it and his body parts did not seem to be chewed or eaten in any way. These were the major things Kruath noticed, he didn't have time to investigate, although it truly intrigued him. He had to focus on the primary mission, it was a big step for group after all.

"Listen good. Since there's only six of us now, each of you will be responsible for taking one villager and making sure that you make it back to the meeting spot. Remember that Ox wanted three young girls and two young men, older people don't sell too well." He looked over to his group and continued, "You three go for the girls and you two go for the guys, we were able to see a few of these people enter their homes, so you get the rough idea of who lives where. If you don't see someone who fits the description move to the next house. Pick the locks or go through windows and make sure you use that sedative. Got it?"

The five men silently nodded and moved closer to Kruath. Kruath brought his hands together in a praying fashion and released an area effect spell.

"Muffle Step" he whispered, a low green light emitted from his hands and traveled throughout the group. He finished and looked to one of his men, "Test it."

The dark clothed bandit proceeded to stand and jump, landing with his full weight but not emitting an audible noise. Kruath smirked underneath his wrappings and motioned for his group to get going. As four of the men moved in, one lagged to ask Kruath a question.

"What're you going to be doing?"

Kruath's eyes narrowed at this. "I'm going to be checking out the main buildings over there, you just focus on getting those people. Got it?" He added the last two words with an aggressive tone. His subordinate simply nodded and moved on. With that said and done, Kruath began to make his way to the first obvious building of interest, the shop.

 _Inside a certain residence…_

Briley had been falling in and out of sleep ever since he got home, the day had not been easy on him and he had to prepare for the workload ahead of him. The problem with trying to sleep tonight was that he kept having to adjust himself, the supplies he carried today had been heavier than usual after all and his back was not agreeing with him tonight. He flipped over one last time and stared at the ceiling, trying to let the subtle sounds of the outside sooth him to sleep again. His mind wandered and the thought of the three new girls invaded his mind again, he just couldn't stop thinking about where they might've come from. When he actually gave it some thought, nothing really made too much sense and he wished he could ask them, though he didn't want to seem obsessive. He spread his arms and legs out taking a deep breath and finally closing his eyes. Almost instantly after closing his eyes, he reopened them and sat up, deciding that a late-night stretch would ease his muscles and help him sleep. As he turned his body and lets his legs hang over the side of his bed, he looked up and jolted awake from what he saw. A figure stood before him, wearing nearly all black, frozen and looking directly at him.

Briley thought that he was dreaming but realized that the slight pain on his back contradicted this. His next move was jumping out of bed and charging the intruder before him. He could see that the intruder was reaching for something as he ran but was able to make contact before anything was brandished. Luckily for Briley, both were about the same build, unluckily for Briley, he was still tired and groggy. Both men fell to the floor and Briley proceeded to get ahold of both the intruder's wrists, trying to keep him from reaching any further. Both were trying to roll over the other and because the intruder's boots offered grip that Briley's socks didn't, he proceeded to take the advantage. Briley had now lost his hold on the intruder's wrists and was practically being sat on by him. Soon after, the man in all black began to strike down at Briley using both of his fists, Briley had not gotten his arms up in time and was dazed by the first hard punch to his face.

"I was supposed to sedate you!" The bandit brought his fist down again, "But you just had to stay up past your bed time uh!" and again, breaking his nose, "But beating you to a pulp should work just fine!"

Briley was close to losing consciousness and any thought that he had was instantly interrupted by another firm punch. As he took a final blurred look ahead of him, facing the man who would presumably beat him to a deep sleep, he noticed another blurred figure behind the intruder.

The bandit, who went by Novak, was not expecting to walk in on a waking resident. He had come through a window and fully expected to find a sleeping person that he could easily sedate and leave with. Instead he had the bad luck of finding a person who just happened to get up, he had to admit it caused him to freeze where he stood. Still, after a short scuffle, he was able to retake the edge and give this villager the beating of a lifetime. After throwing his last couple punches, he stopped so that he wouldn't accidently kill him. Novak straightened his back, still sitting on top of Briley, and caught his breath as he began to stand up. It was at this moment that he felt another pair of eyes on him, Novak quickly turned around and once again stood frozen at the sight of another person in the room. He had only seen Briley laying on the bed and thought he hit the jackpot when he found a young guy who seemingly lived alone. Novak had previously tried to take out his syringe that held the sedative, before being tackled and never got the chance to try and reach for it again. This time it was the first action he took. The person in front of him was a woman, a young woman who currently had a genuine smile and held her arms crossed in front of her.

"Wow. You really did a number on him. I'll be honest, I was really bored back in my room and thought I would find…Bry…son? And you know, mess with him a little." Lupus kept a smile plastered on her face as she said all this.

Novak had no clue what this woman was saying and frankly was only thinking about knocking her out using the sedative. Taking someone who looked as good as her would probably earn him more points than taking a guy who he just beat to a pulp. Novak decided to act quick, while this woman was clearly confused about the situation at hand. He lunged, keeping the syringe close to his side and his body low to the ground.

"Hey! You're like that other human! Do all humans charge headfirst at things they don't understand?" Lupus exclaimed as she waited patiently for Novak to reach her.

To Novak, he had the easiest target in the world and couldn't wait until this girl was on the floor, so that he could finally wrap things up in this no name village. Unfortunately for Novak, Lupus kept her arms crossed but chose to kick him underneath his jaw, killing him instantly.

After Lupus killed the victor of the little fight she had witnessed, she turned her attention to the loser. She walked over to Briley, taking a good look at the beaten up young man.

"Hmm…I guess it would be interesting to hear your story with this guy and all those other humans who think they're all sneaky. Consider this your lucky day…Bri…den?" Lupus outstretched one arm and proceeded to cast her healing ability on Briley.

 **A/N: I'll be honest, this chapter gave me a little trouble and went through a few rewrites. I feel good about the future stuff though and think it'll turn out good. To Nov., I'll heed your advice for future chapters, thank you. Thanks for the bookmarks and favorites. (They give me incentive not to give up after some writer's block)**


	6. Cedar Village Part 5

It was like waking up from a bad dream that one could feel, or at least remember feeling. In an instant, the pain associated with getting repeatedly struck in the face was no more, but the panic and fear felt at the moment still lingered within Briley's mind. He shot up, gasping for air and looking at his body to inspect for any further injuries. He had no idea what was going on at the moment, how many hours had passed since he was beaten unconscious, or how he was feeling physically healthy. Once the initial surprise of waking up and feeling so good had passed, Briley looked up to survey the state of his home. His heart jumped slightly at the sight of someone standing in front of him and he had the immediate urge to get up and run, that is until he realized who it was.

Lupus stood before him, smiling and all, seemingly waiting for him to respond. Briley was even more confused now, had she come to his home for something and discovered him all beaten up? Briley's thoughts then switched over to the intruder, who he last recalled was sitting on top of him.

"Lupus…what…what are you doing here? You didn't see the guy who did this to me, did you?" Briley managed to get out as he brought his hand up to his face, noticing no bumps or pain.

"That guy? Yeah! After he finished giving you the beating of a life time, he tried to get a piece of me haha! He wasn't very strong though and died after one kick." Lupus pointed to the corpse of the home intruder.

Briley looked at the dead man, noticing that his head was unnaturally bent backwards. He felt some relief at the sight, then felt puzzled at the rest of the details that surrounded the situation.

"He didn't hurt you right? I…I uh…I feel fine too, did you give me something? "

Lupus held her grin and began to explain. "I healed you! And that guy was kind of a pushover, it's pretty funny considering he beat you up. So, what's the story with you and these guys? Is your village at war? Did you do something to them first? Or what?"

Briley noticed Lupus's use of "guys" and in return asked, "Wh…what do you mean? Did you see more of these guys? What's going on!?"

Lupus's smile disappeared and she sighed, "You mean you don't have a clue about what all this is about? I was hoping to get something out of you, I guess I'll have to investigate this myself."

Briley was still lost and the fact that he still had no clue as to why Lupus was here, or what was happening in the village only enhanced that feeling.

"Lupus…you still haven't told me why you came here in the first place…" Briley decided to get a quick answer to this, then worry about the apparent attack on the village.

Lupus thought about her answer and came up with an interesting, as well as entertaining, alternate story for her to give. She had initially come here to escape the boredom that plagued her, it had become more severe ever since CZ and Entoma left for their little supply run. One thing she noticed about the other invaders is how two of them seemed to be carrying villagers over their shoulders. Lupus's quick thinking and inventive imagination led her to once again make her own fun.

Lupus smiled softly, and her eyes sharpened as she said this, "I came here to ask for your help Briley-" When it came to her own amusement, recalling details didn't seem so difficult. "-It seems like these bandits are stealing your own people, right from under your nose. I, unfortunately, woke up to find that this was also the case with my sisters. They've been taken, and I intend to go rescue them from wherever it is they were taken to. I want you to join me."

Briley felt a sense of anxiety overtake him again. The thought of the people he knew personally and the girls who he tried to help being kidnapped, made him want to vomit. This feeling was especially prevalent because he never mentioned to Lupus or her "sisters" about the potential danger that loomed over the village. Once he heard Lupus mention bandits, he looked back to the very same bandits that had promised to return a few days ago. Another cause to his extreme uneasiness was Lupus's somewhat serious tone, he had yet to see this side of her.

"Shit…I'm sorry Lupus, I…I should've told you. A few days ago, some bandits arrived and threatened the village. I thought the worst thing they could do was take our stuff or destroy some buildings…I didn't think it would happen while you three were staying here too…" Briley dropped his head, feeling defeated.

Lupus grabbed Briley by his shirt collar and hoisted him up on his feet, afterwards looking him dead in the eye. "Briley, wallowing in shame won't do anything to fix the situation. You and I will go rescue them, dealing with anybody who stands in our way."

Briley was once again taken back, by two things this time, Lupus's strength and her disregard for the danger of such an operation. But the guilt that he felt for not warning the sisters of the possible bandit risk, fueled him to do anything to fix it. There was also no telling what the bandits planned to do with the people they took or how many people had been taken.

"Ok…Alright I'll go with you. It's only right since this is partially my fault for not telling you guys about the danger. But before we do that, I have to wake everyone and gather them at Ellyn's bar. I'll explain the situation to them and see if anybody else want to come with-"

"No." Lupus calmly stated.

Briley was stunned by Lupus's denial of help and asked, "What? What do you mean? If we let more people come with us, we could stand a better chance at rescuing the others, including your frien…sisters!"

Lupus finally let go of Briley's collar. "I don't need anybody else to come with us, it would only make for a cluttered field. Besides, based on this one that I killed, they shouldn't be too much trouble."

Briley was speechless at her reasoning and then gave the bandit, that she had supposedly killed with one kick, another visual inspection. If she really had killed the bandit with one kick, then perhaps she was more capable than he had initially thought. He was still worried about trying to get the kidnapped people back but decided to hope for the best and go with Lupus's plan.

"Alright fine, we'll do it your way. It might work out better for us if we do this stealthily, but I still want to wake everyone up and tell them what happened. I also want to see who's missing."

Lupus crossed her arms and retained her cheerful attitude, "That's fine, but we do this ourselves. I'll wait for you just outside the village, I think I have a pretty good idea of where these bandits are going. It'll be fun! "

Briley offered her a bewildered expression as she cheerfully added the last part, maybe it was how she coped with things, he thought.

 _At the bandit's rendezvous point…_

Kruath sat with his legs crossed waiting for his men to come back one by one. His own trip to explore the rest of the village's buildings led nowhere and raised one more question to the strangeness that he was experiencing throughout the whole mission. He found that the shop had already been broken into, if any valuables existed, they had been taken. The other buildings held nothing of importance and also showed some signs of forced entry. He was trying to decide whether one of villagers had done it or if another rogue bandit did it before they arrived. As his mind danced with this mystery, along with the strange killings of Brigham and Razor, he sensed a presence making his way towards him.

Without the thumping of steps, the spell from before still taking effect, one of his men came into his view. He was carrying a young girl and seemed to be trying to control his tired breath.

"Are you that in need of strength training that you can't carry a young girl?" Kruath mockingly questioned.

"No…no I'm good. Really." The bandit before Kruath answered, adjusting his captive on his shoulder.

Kruath smirked underneath his mask wrappings and motioned for his minion to rest, they still needed to wait for the others.

One by one they each arrived carrying their targets over their shoulders and proceeding to take a quick rest. They only needed to wait for one last person, Novak, who they assumed was taking longer because he was one of the two assigned to capture a young man. The most recent of the group to arrive at the meeting point was also assigned to capture a male.

As the group sat, waiting for the final member to reach them, Kruath inspected his men and noticed one of his guys that was holding a death stare into space. Kruath had seen many things in his lifetime and recognized this stare as one of shock.

"Hey, What the hell is the matter with you? Hey!" Kruath had to call again and got the attention of all four of his men who sat waiting.

The bandit who had seemingly been remembering some traumatic sight, spoke up, "I…I was just thinking about something I saw back at the village. One of the houses I broke into, you know, to see if I could find a young girl."

"What about it?" Kruath curiously asked.

"It…I just saw something I wasn't expecting. It was something grisly and horrifying, especially for a village that small…"

Kruath was getting annoyed by his non-answers. "Spit it out already!"

"When I came in through the window, I just saw blood everywhere…whoever was living in that house had been just…torn to shreds. It was almost like whoever did it, played with them and just took their time."

Everyone in the group stayed silent, even Kruath was once again confused by the strange things they were experiencing on their mission. In his mind, these things were strange but not completely out of the realm of explanation. It was a big world and people were capable of anything, it was because of people that he had come up with a theory, at least for now. His big theory? This had to be a serial killer, that either based himself in the village or just happened to pass by. Perhaps the serial killer had been in the middle of exterminating that wolf when Brigham and Razor unluckily caught him in the act. The Killer then proceeded to murder both the bandits and head to the village where he slaughtered another person before breaking into some buildings, taking some supplies and hitting the road. Yes, this is what made most sense, Kruath thought, it would've driven him crazy if he didn't find the answer. Hearing about the murdered villager was the final clue he needed, and he was able to put the mystery to rest for now. Still, a serial killer of this caliber, one that could kill without any trouble and move fast was something else that intrigued him. Perhaps one day, he could come face to face with this person.

Time had passed, a lot of time, and Kruath had decided that enough was enough. They had been waiting for their final party member to arrive with his male captive and had even given him more time, considering that men weighed more, thus slowing them down.

Kruath stood and addressed his men, "Alright that idiot isn't making it, it's possible he got made out and captured or killed. We're heading back to base and presenting Ox with what we got, I'll explain to him everything that went wrong. Move it!"

With that, all his men stood and once again threw the captives over their shoulders. This mission was simple and they had even taken the precaution of going at night, when they could've easily taken the people by force during the day. Ox would be annoyed but probably wouldn't kill any of them, considering they had already lost three members tonight. Kruath was the most annoyed, this was his mission to lead and it felt like they messed up the simplest of things.

 _Just outside the village…_

Lupus stood near the village, waiting for Briley to finish with his wrangling of the village people. She held her mace in her hand, swinging it around playfully and trying to pass time. Ever since the bandit back in Briley's home had attacked her, she was excited to retaliate against the group he represented. It had been obvious that he was part of a larger force and she figured that since he intended to do her harm, that his friends also needed to be punished. Making up the story about CZ and Entoma being kidnapped justified it for Briley and incentivized him to tag along. Surprisingly, Lupus had found that messing with Briley was a pretty nice hobby and couldn't wait to see how he would hold up against the rest of the bandits, she had not yet decided if she would let him die or not. Just as Lupus was thinking about hiding and later scaring Briley, she noticed him walking towards her. She also saw that he had the other human they met, walking beside him.

As soon as the pair reached Lupus, she began, "Hey Briley and…Briley's friend! Why are the both of you here? It was just going to be me and Briley doing this." Lupus ended with a confused expression.

"It's Garin, and I just thought that I would lend you guys a hand. Briley told me you only wanted it to be you and him, but I know I can be of some use! I can help." Garin said as he tightly gripped the wooden bow he carried.

Lupus thought for a second and decided that messing with two people was just right, anymore and it would be too crowded. Besides, she was aware of Garin's fondness for Shizu and figured that it could play in nicely.

"Fine, I guess it wouldn't ruin the fun too much. Maybe Shizu would be inclined to show you some gratitude Garin." Lupus said with a suggestive tone.

Garin's eyes widened a bit at this remark but he replied, "Well…I…I'm not expecting anything in return and I just want to see both of your friends, or sisters I guess, safe again." Garin had recalled that Briley informed him of the fact that Lupus referred to Entoma and Shizu as her sisters.

"Well isn't that sweet of you!" Lupus exclaimed then turning her attention to Briley, "You ready to head out? Oh! How did your village react to all this!? Were they scared, angry, or what?" Lupus excitingly asked.

Briley had gotten used to her excitement but still found it odd that she wanted to know such a thing.

"Well, they didn't take it too good. For the most part they agreed to stay on alert for the rest of the night and the chief is sending a couple other people to the city to ask for some assistance. It doesn't help that the bandits made off with four village residents and we found someone in the village murdered, in a very gruesome way."

Lupus suddenly remembered the intoxicated man who she encountered and flinched at the thought that she forgot to clean up after herself. She had been so engrossed with having her fun and then going to tell her sisters about it, that she left the scene as it was.

"Hmm that's strange, but nothing we can do about it now! Let's go!" Lupus shrugged off the villager she had murdered and decided to focus on this new venture.

"Wa-Wait Lupus! You mentioned before that you had an idea of where these bandits were heading, what did you mean?" Briley blurt out, before Lupus could take another step.

Lupus turned and gently smiled, "What I meant is that I have pretty good tracking skills, finding these bandits shouldn't be too much trouble. Just stick with me! I imagine you two aren't too adept at tracking, especially during the night."

"Actually that's one reason I let Garin come along-" Briley spoke up, realizing he had not yet mentioned this, "He actually has a talent that enhances his vision, he can see better at night and see farther than most people."

Garin smiled slightly at his friends mentioning of his talent and felt a little sense of pride knowing that he could play a big part in the rescue. Lupus on the other hand, quit her nonchalant demeanor and paid full attention to the pair standing beside her.

"A talent?" She curiously asked.

"Uh yeah, you know everybody has a chance to be born with one, it's not always magic casters or warriors that have them." Garin replied

Lupus had heard of this before, the boy back in Carne Village had one that Lord Ainz found useful. She also knew that talents did not exist in Yggdrasil and were not very common in this new world. Things suddenly took a more serious tone for her and she realized that Lord Ainz could possibly make use of this, she new he liked to study various things.

Lupus warmly smiled at Garin and put her weapon away by her side before speaking, "I see. Yes, maybe you will be useful to us. Let's go, I'm sure this rescue will go over smoothly."

Lupus began to move, and the two boys moved to follow behind her. Lupus's objective had now changed, instead of possibly letting these two die at the hands of the bandits, she would have to make sure they were alive and well. Garin, because of his talent, and Briley because of his future leverage opportunities. Lord Ainz had done something like this, keeping one person alive to keep the other in line.

 _At the bandit's cave hideout…_

The rest of the mission had gone smoothly, Kruath was relieved once they made it to the cave without any more surprises. They made it to the cave hideout, gave the prisoners over to those who oversaw jailing them and the only thing left to do was to report over to Oxton. Thinking about having to report the unexpected happenings once again caused him to feel a bit of anxiety, he hated making mistakes. As he walked through the damp cave, whose only light source was torches, he could feel his heart beat getting just a little bit faster. Once he walked into an open area of the cave where the bandits had decorated with tables, chairs and barrels of supplies, he looked up to see Oxton sitting on a chair that sat upon an elevated part of the space. Although he was standing, he looked up to Oxton, who was sipping on a mug.

"You took a while getting back, did something happen?" Oxton questioned Kruath, almost expecting to hear of some trouble.

Kruath moved his hands behind himself and clutched one using the other, "Yes, actually. We lost three men, two were killed by…wolves-" Kruath had decided in the moment to keep his serial killer theory to himself, "-and the other one never came back from his time in the village, we don't know what happened to him."

"So how many villagers did you manage to capture?"

Kruath took a breath then spoke, "Four, three women and one guy, we figured sinc-"

"Why only four? Are you telling me you couldn't have gone in, when the other guy didn't come back from the village?"

Kruath flinched at this and began to give his reason, "I figured that since we already lost a few guys and had to do this before anyone realized what was happening, I would keep my hands free to-"

"Enough, you messed up a perfectly simple mission and lost three men. Tell me, who was it that we lost?"

Kruath swallowed, "Brigham, Razor, and Novak."

Oxton took another sip and thought for a moment before speaking, "Two of them were new and the other one wasn't anything special. This wasn't a huge loss, but you still screwed up as the leader. I'll decide on a punishment for you later, get the hell out."

Kruath nodded and left Oxton's presence, feeling like a child who had just gotten scolded. Before joining the Oxmen, Kruath was an assassin for hire and had joined solely because of the Oxmen's potential. He had actually been sent to kill a few of Oxton's men and succeeded but was caught red-handed by Ox himself. Instead of the two fighting it out, Ox had convinced Kruath to join his organization, thanking him for culling his group of weak people. It had only been a couple of months but Kruath was confident of the direction they were heading, an assassin for hire was a tough job. On the one hand, being a renown assassin meant more job offers but it also contradicted the fact that he was supposed to stay hidden. Either way, he had found himself a place as sort of a sub-leader to the Oxmen and had no intention of letting it die.

 _Back with Lupus, Briley and Garin…_

The three had been making their way through the wilderness, with Lupus seemingly catching every little imprint on the dirt and to both the boy's surprise, sniffing the air from time to time. Garin was trying to prove his worth by also occasionally spotting a footprint or two, although not to the extent that Lupus was. Briley finally decided to ask some questions that had been lingering in his mind.

"Hey Lupus, can I ask you something?"

"Hmm? Yeah sure! I can't promise any answers though!"

Briley decided to address the bandit back at his house and Lupus's fighting skills, "Back at my place, you said you killed that bandit with one kick, I didn't see it, but it looked like it was true. Do you have some kind of training?"

"Nope! Just naturally skilled I guess."

Briley was disappointed at this answer, he felt like she was avoiding the question but continued, "Also you seem to be very skilled with tracking, did you practice this type of thing?"

Lupus brought her finger up to her chin, as if she was thinking hard and replied, "Not really, it's just the way I was made!"

Briley once again was unsatisfied with the answer but decided that this was not the time to be prying. He simply nodded in affirmation and they continued to walk forward. As they walked, Garin stopped while telling Briley and Lupus to do the same.

Briley quickly responded, "What?"

"Over there to the side, there's a…body?" Garin pointed.

The three then turned towards the body's direction, Lupus was the first to start walking towards it. Briley and Garin looked at each other, deciding to follow in case something happened.

Lupus loomed over the corpse and its scattered parts, "It's nothing, looks like he was just ripped to shreds, let's keep moving."

Briley got closer and inspected it himself, "Yeah, I don't recognize this person. It's no one from the village, let's just keep going."

Garin didn't want to get any closer and simply nodded at Lupus and Briley's conclusion. Their objective right now was to get the villagers back and return safely, they certainly didn't want to meet the animal or person who did this.

 _CZ and Entoma leaving Ainz's office…_

CZ did not often become disappointed, she was after all created by one of the supreme beings and was gifted with being able to serve them. But at this point she couldn't help but feel a little saddened, saddened at the fact that Lord Ainz was not in, and currently out adventuring. The report she had written was left with Albedo, who assured them that Lord Ainz would get to it as soon as he could. Although it was a bit selfish, she hoped that she could've have been there when Lord Ainz reviewed it and hear what they could improve on. Even with this, there was still a mission to accomplish and they still had to visit the treasury to get some currency for this world and go to their rooms to bring a few extra supplies.

"Shizu don't look so sad. Lord Ainz is sure to get to it and he will appreciate that you made it so detailed, even for our first day out!" Entoma said, sensing CZ's disappointment.

"I know. It would have been nice to see him though. Let's just get to the treasury, Lady Albedo has made sure to communicate to Pandora's actor that we are making our way there. The traps should be temporarily disabled." CZ proceeded to use the ring, a spare that had been given to them by Albedo, to teleport themselves to the treasury.

As CZ and Entoma walked down the final hall before making it to the treasury, CZ took a small breath, mentally preparing for the encounter that awaited them. It wasn't often that any of the Pleiades visited the treasury, you had to have one of the rings of Ainz Ooal Gown to access it, but from the times that CZ did, she found her nerves getting riled up at the interaction of one particular guardian. Just as she was mentally preparing, she was caught off guard by a greeting.

"Hallo, meine schönen damen!"

CZ flinched slightly at Pandora's Actor, remembering how dramatic he could be. Entoma simply shot a glare and decided to let CZ do all the talking, if anyone could get to the point, it was her.

"Pandora's Actor, Entoma and myself are currently carrying out a mission assigned to us by Lord Ainz. We require some currency that could be used for the new world, I believe Nazarick has managed to acquire some."

"Ah yes! Mein creator mentioned to me the current assignments that have the inhabitants of Nazarick so electrified! If I had to guess, you returned to Nazarick in order to retrieve more supplies after spending some time on the outside! You wish to show Lord Ainz that you're capable of adapting right?" Pandora's Actor had moved closer to the pair as he said this, twirling some of the way.

CZ simply glared at him, secretly impressed by his quick analysis, "Yes, that's correct. Is there currency usable for the outside world?"

Pandora's Actor now stood in front of the two maids, "Alas my dear Shizu and Entoma! There does exist currency to be used by those on the outside but Lord Ainz, my creator, my liberator! Has instructed me to inform all, that the coinage is not to be distributed just yet! I offer my humblest apologies for the inconvenience-" He took action in grabbing CZ's hand and bowing his head, "-and do hope you understand that I am under orders!"

CZ immediately retracted her hand and let out a low growl, only audible to herself. Entoma stepped back and brought her arms together, so that the same would not happen to her.

"If Lord Ainz ordered it, there is no inconvenience. We will be leaving now." CZ and Entoma turned around to leave, quickly.

Pandora's Actor took a few big steps and once again stood in front of the two, "While I could not help you with your original goal, perhaps I could be of use in some other way? Perhaps in the form of advice?"

CZ and Entoma didn't feel like having a long conversation with Pandora's Actor, but knew that he was among the smartest in Nazarick, Lord Ainz had made him to be so. CZ thought that a suggestion or two could only be of benefit to them.

"Fine, but we must head back. Be quick" CZ muttered

"Danke vielmals! Lord Ainz has conversed with me about your mission and I implore you to not take kindness for granted! Humans are but ants compared to the denizens of Nazarick, but that does not mean that you must simply squash them! Lord Ainz showed mercy and kindness, and now has a village under his control, not by fear but by admiration for him!" Pandora's Actor looked to the ceiling and spread his arms out, thus ending his speech.

CZ and Entoma looked at each other for the first time since entering the treasury, and then looked to the creation before them.

"Yes, we understand, thank you." CZ softly spoke.

CZ and Entoma walked around the posed figure and began to make their way out of the treasury, each of them thinking about what Pandora's Actor had told them. Pandora's Actor held his pose for a few seconds and then let his body relax, turning towards the maids who only showed him their backs. He took a hold of his hat and slightly tipped it downwards saying one last thing.

"Viel Glück, ich hoffe, Sie finden Wert in Ihrer Mission."

 _Lupus, Briley and Garin arrive to what they think is the end of the line…_

"A cave? Well I guess that means they can't get away!" Lupus cheered as the trio looked to the cave that was somewhat overgrown with vegetation. As they made their way to the bandits, they had seemed to arrive in a clearing where a tall mountain stood before them. They stayed a good distance away, where the average person couldn't spot them and they had almost not seen the cave entrance at all. A lit torch and two guards had acted as their markers, although the guards seemed to be dozing off.

"What should we do?" Garin asked.

Lupus had to keep in mind that these two might have some use, especially because of the talent Garin held and wanted to take a course of action that involved them staying out of harm's way. She took a couple seconds before finding a solution that could work, if she got things done fast.

"Hmm, I got it! You two walk around the mountain, where you can of course, and look for another way in!" Lupus suggested, intending to get rid of the boys for a few minutes.

Briley and Garin shot a concerned look to Lupus and tried to think if that was the best course of action. After some quick deliberating, the two decided that trying to find an alternate way in might work out, they should avoid potentially alerting the bandits within.

"Lupus, why don't you come with us? Would you really be safe waiting here on your own?" Briley asked.

Lupus kept her eyes on the cave entrance and replied, "I'm sure I'll be fine. Just try to find another way in, once you do, come and get me alright? I'll stay and let you know if they take the villagers or my sisters out of the cave."

Briley and Garin were still a little bit wary about letting Lupus stay on her own but figured that knowing whether the captives were moved or not was important information. They both agreed to Lupus's plan and they immediately began to move. They crouch walked, circling the mountain and using Garin's talent to see if they could spot another entrance. Once Briley and Garin were out of sight, Lupus let out a satisfied "Hmph!" and began walking directly to the cave entrance.

The two guards at the cave's entrance were dead tired and had even brought out chairs to sit on. Once the captives had arrived, everyone seemed to forget that they had a guard schedule and left the two Oxmen to guard for seemingly all night. One had his arms crossed and his head thrown back, still awake but just barely. The other had his arms crossed but his head looking forward, he couldn't wait until Oxton decided to move the group out of this cave. The guard was blinking repeatedly, trying to fight off sleepiness, when he noticed a figure walking towards him. He rubbed his eyes, brushing it off as some hallucination. When he opened his eyes again, his body jolted awake, whatever he saw had not gone away and was still walking towards him. He grabbed his sword and quickly stood up, yelling at his watch partner to do the same.

"Hey, you idiot, get up! Someone's coming!"

The other guard straightened his posture then grabbed his pike, at the same time standing up, and holding it in a defensive position. He shook his head, making the last bit of sleepiness go away. The two were now ready and the guard who held his sword in front of him began to speak.

"Hey! Don't come any closer! Who the hell are you!"

As the figure moved in, the torch's light was able to finally illuminate the person, at the same time sending a chill down each of the guard's back. This was because the person, now standing in front of them, was a woman, an extremely attractive woman. They let their weapons fall slightly but still questioned her.

"Who are you?" One of the guards asked again, obviously eyeing the female down from head to toe.

"Doesn't matter!" The girl said, before she began to walk towards them again.

"Hey. Hey! Stop dammit! What the hell are you doing!" The guard with the sword tried to halt her with his voice but soon realized that he had to take action. He brought his sword back up and lunged to stab the girl in front of him, who still had not stopped. He was watching her face as he went for the stab, expecting it to shift over to pain. It wasn't until his sword felt like it had hit a brick wall that he finally looked down at it, seeing that she was holding the blade in her hand.

"What the-" His reaction was cut off as the woman used her free hand to strike him in the face, ripping his head clean off. The guards body stood for half a second before finally collapsing to the ground, leaving his partner struck with shock. The other guard then shifted his gaze from his partners dead, headless body, to the girl that had just killed him. He was decent with his pike but did not have a lion's heart and it immediately showed.

He dropped his weapon, "I…wait! I didn't-" His plea was cut off as Lupus grabbed him by the neck using both her hands. She lifted him up and held him there, a smile on her face and a slight blush creeping on her cheeks. The guard grabbed her arms in return and attempted to break free by flailing his legs, she didn't move an inch as he panicked. After several seconds, he began to slow down and his final gasps of air escaped his nose and mouth, Lupus released, letting the guard hit the ground.

"Alright! You're just as weak as the first bandit I killed, this'll be a breeze! Although, I guess I should finish this fast, so I'll use this!" Lupus took a hold of her mace and proceeded forward into the cave.

As she walked within the interior of the cave, she could see that the initial cave corridor was also lit by torches and stretched quite a bit back. She had considered running, but thought that would expose her too much, she eventually saw that the corridor was beginning to widen.

Five members of the Oxmen sat in one of the first caverns of the cave. They were playing cards and were spread out among a circular table. This first cavern was not that open and at most could fit ten people, Its ceiling forced taller men to slouch and stretched out to roughly an oval shape. The men had been bored ever since the captives arrived, Oxton had not given any new orders since then and no one felt like switching over to guard duty.

"Read it and weep!" One bandit said as he threw down all his cards.

The rest of the group quickly scanned his spread of cards then threw theirs down in frustration. The same man had been winning all night and the others were starting to suspect him of cheating in some way.

"No way! This is stupid, you're cheating!" A bandit sitting across the winner yelled out, standing up as he did so.

"Just cause you're an idiot in this game, doesn't mean I'm cheating! Go to hell!"

The accuser was even more riled up now and began to walk around the table, making his way to the bandit he had accused of cheating.

"Get over here! Let me see those sleeves of yo-" His demand was interrupted as a black, fairly large mace, smacked him on the side of his face. The force of the hit threw him straight to the wall, the sound of his bones cracking as he made contact and fell down.

The remaining four men watched as his body flew across the small room and their attention was held there for only a second as they recoiled back to the source of the blow. There stood a woman, with the murder weapon, who once again brought her arm back and landed the head of the mace on the closest person to her. The bandit's head was crushed inwards, without any trouble to the woman who began to laugh at the sight.

"Haha! Why are you all just staring at me? Are you just waiting to die, one by one?" Lupus lifted her weapon from the bandit's head and waited for the others to make their move.

The two bandits who had lost the game previously, got up and grabbed their weapons that laid on the table. One jumped on the table and began to bring his sword back, intending to strike quick, he had no time to think. The other bandit got up unsheathing his dagger from his hip and quickly making his way around the table to get within stabbing distance of the invader. The winner of the card game got up, wide eyed, and began to run to the opening that led deeper into the cave. He would find himself running behind the two losers and table, in his mind, he had plenty of time to escape and warn the others.

After Lupus had finished quickly disposing of the two bandits closest to her, she openly mocked the rest of the men and waited for them to take action. One climbed the table and seemed to be going for quick strike, the other had gotten up and ran around the table, brandishing his dagger. The third man had gotten up and was trying to make for the cave opening that led inwards, Lupus decided to end the two attacking her quick in order to catch him. The bandit on the table struck downwards with his sword, Lupus simply stepped aside, and he began to fall forward. As he fell forwards, Lupus brought her mace down and back up, clashing with the weight and gravity of his fall. He folded over Lupus's weapon and she flung him at the wall, once again letting the sound of cracking bones ring throughout the room. By this time, the dagger-wielding bandit was only feet from her and he had decided to go for a tackle before stabbing her. He made contact, practically hugging her waist, but that's all he was able to do, hug her. Lupus had not moved an inch and she laughed before grabbing him by his shirt and throwing him at the escaping third bandit. As the escapee was inches from the opening, he was slung forward by a force that hit him from behind. Both men groaned and tried to recover from being thrown to the ground, suddenly the bandit who had been thrown was once again picked up. His neck was being strangled as he was levitated by Lupus and she, without hesitation, used her mace to impale him.

"I guess you can stab using a mace if you put enough force behind it haha!" She pulled her weapon out and tossed him aside. She looked over at the bandit who tried to escape and gripped him by his shirt, bringing his face up to hers.

"Hey! So far, I've killed like seven of you guys, how many more are there?" Lupus asked her question as if she was getting tired of doing paper work.

The bandit looked around the room, surveying how easily she had executed them. He was not going to chance his possibility of living by trying to lie.

"Ok! Ok! There's about twenty within the cave and a couple prisoners! We got another group of ten doing something else out somewhere! I don't know when they'll be back! That's all I know!"

Lupus let out a pleased giggle and thanked the man, before striking him repeatedly with her mace, she added a few extra in return for the information he gave her. Once she threw his body aside, she quickly thought about the information he gave her.

"Ugh…If there really are twenty more guys inside, then this'll get boring fast. I won't have time to have my fun with them, one on one! Hmm, I got it!"

Lupus brought out a small scroll that could be used to send a message to any of the Pleiades. She unrolled it and tossed it in the air, watching it burn up as it floated.

She began to speak, "Hey Entoma, Shizu! When you finish up with your little supply run, teleport to my location! I could sure use your help with a project!" Once Lupus felt the message spell wear off, she continued walking down the cave, hoping to have her little sisters clean out the rest of it.

 _Back at Nazarick…_

"Entoma you received Lupus's message too, right?" CZ inquired.

"Yes, it didn't sound like she was in danger, but we should hurry and get to her, just in case."

Entoma and Shizu had finished with their trip back to Nazarick and had gathered a few supplies that could serve them in the future, with an exception to the currency. Entoma had gathered more talismans and scrolls she could use, Shizu was now wearing a light brown backpack filled with various things. While more supplies was good and all, both also received the advice from Pandora's Actor, they would need to inform Lupus of it too.

 **A/N: "Good luck, I hope you find value in your mission." is what Pandora's Actor said. This one is the longest so far. Thanks to Triple Zed for leaving a review, we'll see how it all turns out. Thanks for the bookmarks and favorites.**


	7. Cedar Village Part 6

Lupus had continued making her way down the cave's sole passageway, casually taking out a few bandits that had the misfortune of finding themselves crossing paths with her. As she finally spotted a light from a side opening in the passageway, a portal had opened behind her. She turned towards the rift and let a genuine smile manifest on her face, she couldn't wait to see her sisters after what felt like a long night. CZ and Entoma promptly stepped out of the portal, each of them taking the moment to inspect their surroundings. After her inspection of the area, CZ looked over to a smiling Lupus and began to question her about the situation.

"Lupus, where are we? What was the "project" that you needed help with?" CZ skeptically asked about Lupus's project, taking into account her wild personality.

Lupus took a dramatic breath and began to explain, "Ok! Since you guys left for your supply run, some bandits came to the village and sneakily kidnapped a few of the villagers! I convinced those two humans we met to join me in retrieving them! Oh, oh! And I might have told them that you guys were taken too, you know, to explain why you weren't here and have some fun with it! Anyway, I found out that Garin had a talent, so I sent him and Briley to look for another entrance outside, while I cleared out the cave! And…I….think that pretty much explains it!"

CZ showed no emotion but was slightly annoyed that Lupus was probably planning on indirectly killing Briley and Garin, she was also intrigued upon learning about Garin's talent. Entoma, had it not been for her unique design, would have been visually wide eyed at hearing about everything that happened in such a short time.

"I see. Then I will leave it to you two to clear out this cave and rescue the captured villagers, I will go outside and make sure Garin or Briley have not been harmed." With this, CZ turned and began to walk the direction she thought would lead out of the cave.

Lupus was caught off guard by CZ's sudden departure and quickly asked, "Shizu! Wait! Are you sure you don't wanna have some fun?"

CZ stopped and turned, "I wish to see what Garin's talent is. You two should work on eliminating the bandits and rescuing the villagers…they would be grateful if you managed to save them."

CZ continued to walk, leaving Lupus with a confused expression at her last words. She knew CZ was not as "dynamic" as herself but wondered why she commented on the villagers that had been captured.

"Hey Entoma, why is Shizu so worried about the villagers? Did Lord Ainz tell you guys something back at Nazarick?"

Entoma walked closer to Lupus, turning her face upwards to look at her directly, "Actually Lord Ainz was not present, he was out adventuring, I think. Anyway, when we went to the treasury, Pandora's Actor gave us some advice concerning the treatment of humans. He told us to show some kindness, this way they hold Lord Ainz in higher regards in the future!"

"Hmm Pandora's Actor said that…I guess he is the direct creation of Lord Ainz. Alright! Then let's make sure we can save the villagers, if they're still alive, and kill everyone else! Let's go!"

"Ok!" Entoma raised her arms and followed Lupus into the side opening she had spotted right before the two younger Pleiades had made their entrance. This room was significantly more open than the previous cavern Lupus had cleared out and a few metal cages caught their attention. Both girls looked to the floor of those cages and immediately noticed four people, seemingly sleeping, huddled together at the bottom. After noticing the cages, Lupus shifted her sight to the left where she saw two guards sitting around a table, asleep.

"Well, finding the villagers was easy! Entoma take care of those two bandits and we'll leave the villagers here until we make our way back!"

Entoma nodded and proceeded to walk towards the sleeping guards, at least they would never realize what had hit them.

 _Back with Briley and Garin…_

Briley Sighed, "It looks like this side is just as closed off as the rest…"

The boys had been trying to search for another entrance into the cave and had come up empty in doing so. There had been one or two promising openings that only led to dead ends after several feet. It didn't help that the mountain was too steep to try and climb, so trying to find an entrance from above was out. Overall, they had spent a lot of time hoping for the stealthy rescue, that probably could've led to a no conflict solution.

"Yeah, I guess we should head back, Lupus has been waiting a while." Garin added, still looking around.

After their task had been unsuccessful, the boys began to head back to the mouth of the cave and where they had left Lupus to wait. They had gone even farther then they intended to and were now visualizing themselves having to go with the direct route. Fighting the bandits head on didn't seem like an insanely difficult task at first but when the situation was fully presenting itself, it seemed like a suicidal mission. Of course, this all relied on how many bandits resided within the cave and how capable most of them were, Briley had been beaten badly by one of them after all. Still, Briley believed that if Lupus was as skilled as she claimed to be, the three of them could work as a team to make their way through. The thought of her killing his assaulter was one of the few things that made him hopeful for a successful rescue.

Briley and Garin had made their way back and started to watch their footing as they neared the cave entrance, careful to not alert the guards they had seen before. As they finally approached the spot where they had left Lupus waiting, Garin looked over to the cave and muttered in surprise.

"Bri…the guards." Garin grabbed Briley by the shoulder and force him to stop.

"What Garin? What are you talking ab-" As Briley looked to the cave, the shock of seeing the two downed guards made him stop talking.

At first, it might have seemed like the guards finally let their drowsiness take complete hold of them, but a good look revealed that one of the guard's head was…missing. Briley, upon seeing the somewhat grisly scene, looked around for Lupus. She wasn't where they had last seen her, and he began to say her name in an attempt to find her.

"Lupus…Lupus!"

Garin finally pulled his sight from the guards and again took hold of Briley's shoulder, "Briley! Quiet down! Maybe somebody new showed up and took care of the guards, Lupus probably moved somewhere safer."

"I don't know about that, Lupus doesn't strike me as the type to run away, if anything…" Briley began to think about Lupus's uncaring nature and her potential strength.

As Briley was playing with the idea that Lupus may have taken matters into her own hands, both his and Garin's attention was suddenly snapped to someone who revealed themselves from the cave.

CZ casually walked out into the open, not bothering to take a good look at the dead bandits beneath her. She scanned the area for a minute, then quickly laid ger gaze upon the boy's direction, causing both to drop a little. Garin was the first to realize that it was indeed Shizu and his body seemed to react immediately, in the form of getting up and sprinting. Briley also recognized the person as Shizu but couldn't say anything about it before Garin abruptly got up to run.

"Shizu! Are you alright!? What happened!?" Garin was suddenly standing before Shizu and was visually inspecting her from top to bottom, trying to locate any injuries. Briley had reached the both of them after being caught off guard by Garin's outburst.

Shizu briefly stared at Briley but kept her gaze on Garin, "Lupus was successful in rescuing Entoma and myself, she is currently working on locating the other villagers. I suggest we wait here for her return, in the meantime, I would like to ask Garin some questions.

Briley and Garin had almost no reaction to her calm explanation but it soon registered and Briley couldn't hold back his flurry of question.

"Wait, wait, what are you talking about? Lupus dealt with the guards and rescued you two already? What, what is going on? We should head inside and help-"

"Lupus and Entoma are capable of doing this, I suggest you allow them to finish this matter. We are capable of more than you might believe…Entoma and me were merely…caught by surprise." CZ had added the last part, trying to play along with the story Lupus had made up.

Briley and Garin looked at each other, half shocked by the thought that Lupus quickly did all this while they were out looking for another entrance and half shocked that Shizu seemed almost embarrassed about being captured. Briley still had the desire to head inside to help Lupus but decided to take Shizu's suggestion, believing her calm tone was means for reassurance.

"Ok, alright, we'll wait out here with you, Shizu."

Shizu nodded at Briley's confirmation and began to ask Garin her question, "Garin, Lupus informed me of your talent. I would like to know what it is you are able to do."

Garin was taken back by Shizu's interest in him and offered a quick reply, "Uh yeah, ok. Basically, I can see farther away and can see better in the dark, kinda the reason I came along." He sheepishly smiled at Shizu.

"I see…" CZ thought about her own eyes and how they offered her similar abilities, albeit with stronger and more specific effects. "That is interesting, perhaps we can find out if your talent holds any more power that you don't yet realize."

Garin was too taken by Shizu's interest in him and the way she looked in the moonlight to notice that her interest was leaned towards his talent. He had tried before to attract her attention and it had ended with her slowly shutting the door to his offer. Briley was still thinking about Lupus's quick work and was only wondering why everything seemed so…easy going for the girls, whether it was rescuing or just being released from their captors.

 _Oxton and his men within the cave…_

Ox was still sitting within the largest and final cavern of the cave, it had been a long night for his men and it had resulted in sloppiness. The mission to kidnap the villagers had not gone smoothly and many of his men wished to leave this dull part of the country. Ox was annoyed by this but understood that he could not always use his strength to solve a problem, his men would eventually turn against him and he still needed people to do the grunt work. One of the more promising members of the Oxmen, Kruath, he had already sent out with another group to see if they could take the supplies of a merchant wagon that a solo scout had spotted. After they returned, whether they found this merchant wagon or not, he decided that they would begin to pack up to move at first light. He had already inspected the four villagers his team had captured and deemed them fit enough to be sold to almost anybody, he already had a buyer in mind. As these thoughts were running through his head, one of the men within the same cavern caught his attention by walking up to him. Ox still sat in an elevated part of the cavern and looked down at his subordinate, getting ready to wave off another complaint.

"He…Hey Ox, me and some of the guys were wondering if…"

"What." Ox was tired of people not getting to the point.

"…if we could have some fun, with the girls. After all you did get three of them, it would help us relax…"

Ox was indifferent about his men partaking in such an act. He didn't encourage it but didn't actually know if any of his men had partook in this act before, either way, he didn't want to risk damaging his "goods".

"Hmm…No, I can't trust that you won't injure them. I need them in pristine condition, although I suppose that you could try scaring them into taking off their robes or something, don't touch them."

The bandit before Ox was obviously disappointed but figured that he would take what he could. Most of the men would be willing to take this over nothing.

"Yeah…alright, thanks." He turned to a group that was waiting for their answer, "Hey! Ox said we could scare them into exposing themselves! I'd take that over nothing!"

The group was dispirited at their friend's announcement but got up to make their way over to the captive's room. Only a few men opted to stay, not wanting to be part of such a skewed ratio of women to men who would be in one room. The group left Ox's presence and disappeared as they turned a corner that would lead to the main passageway. Ox kept his eye on them, until they all left and turned to one of the men that stayed.

"Hey Rengi, go make sure they don't get carried away, if they do, come get me." Ox commanded.

The bandit wasted no time in following orders and quickly made his way out to follow the group. As Ox watched him leave, he wondered if his men could hold in their desires. For the most part, his orders went without question, the only time he was disobeyed was if someone thought their life was in danger. Perhaps they did believe that their lives would be in danger if they touched his captives, Ox was the strongest after all and he could easily show them so. He relaxed once more, throwing his head back and stroking his mohawk back, wondering if Kruath would somehow run into difficulty again. As he closed his eyes for several seconds, envisioning his group several years from now, something unexpected made him jolt up again. What sounded like screams and the sound of the cave being rocked by a significant force, erupted without warning. He looked around the cavern he resided in first then looked to all his men who were also caught off guard by the sudden event. His eyes were immediately drawn to Rengi, who appeared from the corner of the hall again and was in full panic mode, covered in blood.

"Ox! We're under attack! There are twuuuhhg-" As Rengi was running, what looked to be a large insect leg rounded the corner, piercing his stomach. The leg then retracted, bringing Rengi back with it.

"Everyone get up! Grab your weapons! You five, go out there and fight this thing! The rest of you form a line in front of me!" Ox stood as he said this, grabbing his giant war axe and waiting for his men to fulfill their orders.

The five men he had sent to fight, shot each other a concerned look but were eventually reassured by their numbers. They ran to the hall that they had just witnessed their comrade die in and kept their weapons in front of them, each trying to slow down, as to not be the first to encounter the mysterious beast. As they rounded the corner, their reactions had changed drastically twice, from surprised to almost cocky. They finally receded from Ox's view and he gripped his axe as he waited to see what would become of them.

The only thing he heard was his men's war cries and then screams, only one had managed to run back but was again pierced by a giant inspect leg and pulled back into the fray. Ox was concerned, if this was another group of people, he was sure he could take care of them but from the looks of it, this was some kind of beast.

"Get Ready! We'll show this thing who the hell it's messing with!" Ox added some final words of encouragement before the fight, his men cheered and howled.

After their brief group rally, there was nothing, only silence and the room fell with tension. No one took their eyes off the only entrance to the cavern and they gripped their weapons like their life depended on it. Eventually they could faintly hear footsteps…although they were expecting a monster of some kind, Ox was the first to wonder what this thing was. Finally, after sitting in only the sound of faint footsteps for what seemed like eternity, something rounded the corner.

A small person appeared before the men and didn't seem to be covered in any blood at all, it didn't even seem like this person was a monster of any kind. Ox was the first to discern that this person was likely female, judging from the figure's build and hair style that was only slightly visible from her hood and torch light. His mind went back to the spider leg that they had all witnessed and he guessed that this was some kind of front, all he knew for sure was that this girl had just killed groups of his men. Just as he was getting ready to attempt communication with the girl, another figure made its way around the corner, this one much more obvious in terms of looks.

This other person was a much taller girl and had tanned skin paired with red hair. Her eyes were a golden color and shined through the little darkness that was not illuminated by the torches. Some of the men relaxed at the sight of this beautiful woman and even felt somewhat relived, completely forgetting that they had just lost groups of men.

"All of you on guard! What the hell are you thinking!" Ox yelled, after he had seen his men slack. After this he decided to transfer this angry energy over to the two girls.

"And who the hell are you! Who are you with!"

Lupus was the first to respond, "Are you the last of the bandits in this cave? It's kind of been a pain to get this far, you're like roaches! Haha!"

"At least you have more filling potential! Roaches don't usually fill me up." Entoma added.

Ox wasn't sure how to respond, these girls were strange and showed an overwhelming confidence that he didn't like. They also seemed to be taking the killing of his men with no concern whatsoever.

"So, you've killed everyone else huh? Who are you?" Ox asked again.

"I'm Lupus! And this little cutie is Entoma-" Entoma waved slightly, "-we're here to slaughter all of you!"

Ox kept his composure at Lupus's sudden proclamation and replied, "Really now? For what reason?"

"Well I guess the big reason is because you kidnapped those villagers! But honestly, we would've done this even without a good reason, you're just humans, and bandits at that! You're completely useless!" Lupus offered her best sympathetic look, although it looked like she was holding back a laugh.

Ox was listening, but at the same time trying to figure out how they fought, the only weapon he saw was a mace that hung from Lupus's side. This paired with the fact that the giant insect leg was still nowhere to be seen.

"Look we don't gotta go killing each other, leave and I won't hurt you two." Ox added a menacing tone to this statement.

Lupus let out a giggle, "Humans really are delusional to real power, we're going to go ahead and finish this, this has gotten all the way boring. Entoma…" She gestured for Entoma to attack.

Entoma nodded at Lupus's signal and brought both of her arms up in a zombie fashion, letting the robes drape in front of her. The next thing Ox and his men witnessed was a swarm of bugs, that had come out of nowhere, appear and fly into Entoma's draped arms. Ox saw this strange, what he presumed to be magic act, occur before him and quickly reacted.

"Charge!"

His men, thinking they could reach her before anything happened, all broke out in a sprint. As they ran towards Entoma and Lupus, a sudden barrage of loud bangs and projectiles filled the cavern. The charging gang we're soon met head to head with a flurry of hard bullets, being shot out from Entoma's sleeves. The men we're quickly taken down, a few trying to take cover behind some chairs and tables, only for those to be shredded as well.

Ox witnessed his men being cut down like wheat stalks, he was so engrossed in the mayhem that he barely had time to react to Entoma turning her arms to him. Since he was farther than his men, he had a wider spread of projectiles hail him, he jumped to his left, attempting to reach a stalagmite that would offer better coverage than a wooden table. As he made the jump from his elevated position, he dropped his weapon and had felt several objects puncture his body. He only had to run a few feet and finally dived behind the cave formation using his hands to cover his head. The sound of the bullets hitting the rock rang throughout the cavern but eventually stopped after a short time, most of the shots had been used on the group charging.

Ox heard that the attack had come to a halt and the pain of his own punctures began to make themselves noticeable. He uncovered his head and could hear the sounds of pain from the few men that survived the initial sweep, they were quickly silenced. He looked over to spot his weapon and began to crawl to it, it was his best shot at killing these two. As his vision was only focused on his weapon, he finally reached his hand out to grab it. Only to stop, when his hand was suddenly on the floor. His eyes widened, and he looked up and to his side to see Entoma with a blade and Lupus with her hands on her hips, smiling. Ox retracted from his axe and fell on his back, clutching his hand and letting out a flurry of curse words.

"Hey, hey, don't get all upset, you were the smartest to find some decent cover!" Lupus mockingly said.

Ox's initial terror had passed, and he looked up to the girls, "Wait! You two are strong, real strong! I am too, I got all these idiots to work for me after all! Let's work together! We can do great things together!"

"You think you're strong?" Entoma questioned.

"I am! Obviously, you girls are too! I can be useful and we could get a better group together than these weaklings!" Ox's adrenaline was fleeting and pain was starting to really set in.

Lupus leaned over Ox and her smile dropped slightly, "We are already part of the most powerful group in this world, it's actually insulting that you think you could ever build anything of that caliber. Once our supreme leader decides that the time to truly reveal ourselves has arrived, the world will know true power."

Ox was speechless at this woman's sudden turn to seriousness and was preparing himself to be killed on the spot.

Lupus's soft smile once again altered, back to its goofy-like state, "Alright! I really wanna have some fun with you but we've spent too much time in this dreary cave, so I'll just make sure you suffer for a while after we leave!" Lupus poked Entoma and pointed to Ox, Entoma looked down to Ox and raised her blade.

The next thing Ox knew, both of his feet were detached in a clean slice and his remaining hand was as well. The girls left soon after the mutilation, Lupus being particularly merry about leaving the bandit leader to die slowly.

 _Outside the cave…_

Briley was getting anxious about how long all three had been waiting outside, he couldn't shake the feeling of uselessness that draped over him. The only thing that lifted Briley's spirits was looking over to see Garin conversing, somewhat, with Shizu and appearing very happy about it. Garin was doing most of the talking but Shizu seemed to be paying attention to every word, like she was studying his ramblings.

"But yeah, I just do whatever, I don't dislike any job in particular. What about you Shizu?" Garin had asked Shizu, attempting to shift the conversation over to Shizu once again.

"I will try to accomplish what is asked of me, as long as the request is from…my boss" Shizu had been throwing in substitutes for anything related to Nazarick or Lord Ainz, she was attempting to show the kindness that was recommended from herself and sisters.

Garin was about to keep the chat going when Briley had spoken for the first time in a while. Lupus and Entoma had finally emerged from the cave, each holding two of the villagers over their shoulders.

"Lupus! Entoma!" Briley made his way to the girls and began to ask questions.

"Are you two all right!? What happened to you waiting out here for us!? How did you-"

"Calm down Briley! We just went inside and freed everyone, simple as that!" Lupus joyously said.

"I see that, but how did you…I mean I suspected you were strong but this…this is unbelievable…"

Entoma was the one to speak up this time, "We're strong alright, let's get these villagers back while I have a full stomach."

Briley had no clue what Entoma meant by this but surmised that it was some sort of saying that he wasn't familiar with. CZ had broken her conversation with Garin to address her sisters, after Briley had finished offering his shocked praise.

"Lupus, Entoma, I assume nothing else of value surfaced within?"

"Nope!" Lupus quickly answered.

Garin was the next to interject, "Hey, me and Briley could help you in carrying those people, here." Garin walked to Entoma and she allowed him to take one of the villagers.

Briley was glad to see the villagers safe and seemingly unharmed and offered to take one of the villagers from Lupus. Eventually the group decided to depart from the cave and head back to the village.

The walk back from the cave was filled with questions, mainly from Briley and Garin who were asking the three girls about their origins and abilities. Any questions directed at the girls always led to the same type of answers, vague replies or jokes from Lupus. Eventually the group separated into the boys and girls, the girls being able to keep ahead, showing no signs of exhaustion. Once the two village boys had slightly separated, CZ began to softly talk with her sisters.

"Entoma, since Lupus agreed to helping Briley and Garin return their villagers, I'm guessing you informed her of Pandora's advice."

"Yep, she knows, right Lupus?"

Lupus nodded and brightly smiled showing her perfect teeth to her sisters. She didn't think such advice would be given when dealing with humans, but if Lord Ainz's creation thought it would help, she would try to keep his advice in mind.

CZ asked both her sisters a follow up question, "I assume we will discuss everything that happened once we leave the village, we must make sure Lord Ainz is aware of Garin's talent. The report should also include Lupus's individual experience and what you two encountered within the cave."

Entoma and Lupus nodded in unison and continued to walk at a brisk pace.

Garin and Briley were having their own conversation and were trying to keep it at low volume, since they were talking about the girls.

"Not very satisfied with their answers to your questions huh? Garin asked.

"Yeah, uh, it's just that they've gotten more…interesting as we've gotten to know them, you know what I'm saying right?"

"Yeah, I know. I mean Shizu and Entoma don't even seem bothered by the whole situation and Lupus apparently took out a whole squad of bandits, it's a little strange."

Briley sighed, "It sure is, but they helped us with the rescue, I don't know if we could've done that even with the rest of the village's help."

Garin simply looked forward, staring at the three people in front of them, wondering how much longer they would stay, he still had the selfish desire to try and keep Shizu around somehow.

"You think they'll leave soon"

Briley felt his friend's sadness but replied honestly, "Yeah probably, but she seemed interested in your talent, maybe that's a way for you two to stay in touch."

"I guess." Garin finally said, trying to draw his gaze away from Shizu.

 _Kruath and his group arrive at the cave…_

Kruath had seen and heard of strange things occurring this night but what he had just arrived to, was the biggest surprise of all. The first thing he came upon was two dead guards outside, one decapitated, and figured that this could be Ox trying to scare people away, although he had never done something like this before. Kruath and his men entered the cave, finding more dead bodies and Kruath noticing more unusual details. The dead Oxmen he discovered so far had been thrown, beaten or punctured with brute force. When he inspected the jail room, he discovered the two guards stabbed smoothly and the villagers gone, had the remaining villagers mounted a rescue? There was no way they could've found them this quick, killed this many men without more of a struggle and left without leaving a shred of evidence. He continued walking deeper into the cave, expecting the worst and keeping his guard up. As he neared the final cavern, a pile of dead men clogged the entrance and he opted to step on these men's bodies to get over. Once he reached the final room, he visually swept the chamber to see scattered dead men all over the place. It looked as if they dived for cover and there were signs of small projectiles penetrating the furniture and hitting the floor and walls. Finally, he searched for his leader, Oxton, not spotting him immediately raised some hope in his survival. As he thought about his boss, a weak voice caught his attention, the rest of the men were still either crossing the pile of dead bodies or checking for any survivors.

"who's…there."

Kruath looked for the voice and found the source, half hidden behind what used to be Oxton's resting position. As he made his way to the voice, he was shocked to see Ox, his hand and feet sliced off and slowly bleeding out. He kneeled and lifted Ox's head closer, it was clear that he could not be saved and was on the verge of death.

"Ox, what happened?" Kruath had a bitterness to his tone, not because he was sad for Ox but because he had been so decisively beaten.

"these…two gu…just slaughtered us…" Ox sounded as if he was beginning to fall into his deep sleep.

"I see, who were these two?" Kruath asked this with a more curious tone rather than a vengeful one.

"I don't kno…they said they were a group…didn't say what…"

Kruath was now fully immersed in finding out as much information as he could, so many happenings just this night, were bound to be more than just a simple killer, as he had previously thought.

"Ox give me details, anything. What did they look like?"

"two gi…girls…one tall, one short…shorty wore…a hood like you…tall one had re…red hair and…and-" Ox's head went limp and eyes depleted of any life.

"Hmm, dammit." Kruath was frustrated that he had died as he was giving the details but was relived that he had got a loose description at least.

"Two girls, one tall, one short. Shorter girl wore a hood like me, and the other girl had red hair. This'll have to do for now." Kruath repeated the information out loud, it helped him remember.

Kruath laid his former boss down and stood back up, thinking about what he had just told him. Two girls did all this and claimed to be part of a group, a very strong one. Kruath had joined the Oxmen to be part of a potentially powerful organization and to further his own skills. To see the Oxmen slaughtered so easily, by two women no less, filled him with some embarrassment. Still, what connection did this group have with the village, if they indeed were the same ones that freed the captives. He also wondered why it always seemed like this violence was centered around him, was it a message of some kind? No, maybe not, but he figured it was worth looking into, especially if a solid group was involved. As he was thinking about the situation, one of the group members he was previously out with began to speak to him.

"Hey…Kruath, what now?"

Kruath had much to think about and made a quick decision that would help him act faster on his investigation.

"The Oxmen are dead, Ox is dead, we have no ties and I will be going my own way." Kruath walked past the baffled remaining members and only thought about what he could possibly do next.

 _Back with the maids…_

The sun was beginning to rise, adding some warmth to the once blue landscape and the three maids had successfully escorted Briley and Garin back to the village, with their rescued villagers. The rest of the village was ecstatic at seeing their once captured friends and family returned, believing that the bandits were not as powerful as they imagined. Briley and Garin had simply told the rest of the village that Lupus and themselves acted as a team to recue everyone, seeing as they were left in the dark concerning details from what happened inside the cave. The village was much more engrossed in the four captives being returned than they were at the unclear story. The three maids paid no mind to the village people's excitement over the rescue and prepared to leave, Briley and Garin managed to catch them before they could.

"So, you guys are heading out huh?" Briley directed at no particular girl.

"Yep! We got somewhere else to get to and helping you guys was never part of our plan." Lupus directed at Briley, he shrugged sheepishly.

Garin approached Shizu and handed her a gift, "Hey Shizu, here. It's a dagger, I've had it a while and think if you ever run into trouble again, could use it to defend yourself. I'm sorry all this happened to you and your sisters while you stayed at our village."

Shizu took the gift and stared directly into Garin's eyes, "Thank you and your apology is unnecessary, this issue was not your fault."

Garin couldn't stop a huge grin from creeping on his face and he continued, "Uh yeah…anyway, the answer is probably no but do you think you'll come back to visit us?"

Shizu thought for a moment, "You have your talent, it's likely our paths will cross again."

Garin was happy to hear her answer and simply replied with a smile.

Lupus interrupted everything with her announcement, "Alright! That's enough with the goodbyes! Entoma, Shizu, let's go!"

The three maids left, following the main path once again. Briley and Garin watched as the maids left, each believing that they would hear from them again and that this night was the most interesting thing to happen in all their years in the village.

"Well Garin, I think I'm gonna go sleep, I only got a little before…this whole thing happened." Birley finally let out, tired from this half a day incident.

"Yeah, I guess I will too, hopefully they find what they're looking for." Garin said, finally breaking his stare from the three girls.

The two boys walked away together and mentally prepared to blow off any work they had for the day.

 **A/N: Thanks to AlernateReality roogaroosuman97 for leaving a review. To roog., I'll keep you in mind for sure. Thanks for the bookmarks and favorites. Also, I have exams, papers and presentations to take care of this week, next update will be the longest wait so far (Just don't think I abandoned the story or anything).**


	8. On The Road Part 1

Just over an hour had passed since the three battle maids had left Cedar Village. They had spent this hour informing each other of their individual experiences during the night and discussing the few points of interest that they uncovered during their stay. Although Garin and his talent were the only real significant discovery and for the most part they had only eradicated a bandit group and gone back to Nazarick to retrieve more supplies. To the maids, their stay at the village resulted in only one real lead and they had not made much of an impact, they were fairly confident that their stay in that village was a very minor occurrence. CZ was the only of the three that opted to pry for details regarding any of the events that transpired, she was making sure that nothing would be left out of the next daily report.

"Yes, I understand those bandits were no match for you two, but I just need to know how their strength would compare to a regular human, like those who were at the village." CZ was still prying for info regarding the cave bandits and Lupus was simply not getting why it was so important.

"Come on Shizu! It's like I said, all the humans we met were weak, so comparing their strength is really hard! It's like trying to compare the strength between an ant and a roach!

"Lupus, it's relative. I know you, me, and Entoma, can handle any of the humans we've encountered so far, but gauging strength can have its benefits."

Lupus sighed, "Yea I know, but just let it go this time and I'll think about that more in the future, m'kay?"

"Very well…" CZ sounded defeated and was getting tired of Lupus's laziness.

"Come oooon Shizu! Don't get so grumpy, it's only been a day since we set out, give me a couple more and I'll be an expert in giving you all the information you want!"

"…okay" CZ was simply tired of having to force Lupus to recall info that had just happened hours ago.

"How about we take a look at our next stop!" Lupus sensed her sister becoming gloomy and decided to shift the conversation

She rolled out the map and quickly looked ahead, "Let's see…it looks like we got some walking to do, unless you guys wanna race!"

Entoma and CZ shot a glare at their older sister, Lupus was far too engulfed in her own ideas of fun. Lupus knew her suggestion was a long shot and quickly dismissed it herself.

"What? I was just kidding! You guys wanna talk more about the village or…" Lupus was eyeing CZ with a sly smile, CZ noticed and decided to see what Lupus had up her sleeve.

"Is there something specific you wish to discuss Lupus?" CZ asked this knowing that Lupus clearly wanted to speak up.

"Yes! You know that Garin guy? He was clearly interested in you Shizu! I mean he gave you that dagger and was practically violating you with his stare, didn't you pick up on it!?"

Shizu took a moment to recall and blankly stated, "I noticed that he preferred to speak with me, but I didn't have any interest until we learned about his talent."

"I got that! I'm just saying we could've had way more fun with that before we left, it's pretty funny that he got all flustered when he talked with you!"

"Lupus, you are too focused on trying to have fun, we need to stay on topic." CZ decided in that moment to sick Lupus on Entoma, she figured their current conversation was going to consist mostly of disagreements.

"Entoma, you and Lupus encountered hostile humans. Who do you believe was more efficient in eliminating them?" CZ knew that Entoma and Lupus could argue over this topic for hours, they would likely bring up the same points until they exhausted themselves.

"Me of course. Lupus is great and all, but my insects allow me to take care of multiple enemies at once!" Entoma wasted no time giving out her answer.

"What!? Entoma, your bugs are great but if I wanted to, I could easily take out multiple enemies like you! I just like to play with my toys before throwing them away haha!"

CZ began to walk slightly slower to let her two sisters converse with each other.

"Lupus, you play with your prey too much! You get bored fast and then usually get sloppy with your kills."

"Entoma, my dear little sister-" Lupus got close to Entoma and wrapped an arm around her, bringing her closer, "-let me tell you my methods, I'll explain why I have the upper hand! Shizu! You can listen if you want too!"

CZ looked over at her sisters who were now close to each other and discussing their tactics and methods when it came to fighting humans. To an extent, she was vexed because Lupus had no problem deliberating trivial matters but couldn't focus on details when it came to the mission. CZ was also letting her emerald eyes shine with a bit of envy, when it came to the bigger picture, everyone in Nazarick got along but there was always the difference in compatibility. In short, she felt like her objective oriented nature was somewhat displeasing to Lupus and Entoma. She knew of course that all the Pleiades cared for each other but still felt like the odd one out in this group, she had this feeling as soon as the trio first stepped out of Nazarick. Either way, she chose to keep this feeling to herself as she was not the type to cause a commotion over such minor thoughts.

 _After a lot of walking…_

"-but that's only if you cut off their arm afterwards!" Lupus had finally concluded.

"Well, I guess when you put it like that, I suppose you could match the efficiency of my insects…" Entoma had slightly been convinced.

CZ had been walking slightly behind the pair since she initiated the conversation between them and had only been listening from time to time, she didn't necessarily understand Lupus's appetite for human persecution. It wasn't until Entoma spoke to CZ that she finally snapped out of her trance.

"Shizu, how many humans do you think you could kill in the most efficient manner?"

CZ thought for only a few seconds before she decided that the question was far too vague.

"I would need more information, specifically regarding terrain, number of hostiles, weather conditi-"

"Never mind!" Entoma interrupted.

CZ simply continued to look ahead, paying no mind to her sister's disregard of accurate predictions. Lupus noticed her sisters short interaction and decided to fix this problem by trying to engage with both of them, through a game.

"Entoma! Shizu! How about we play a game to pass the time! Our next stop is still a little far off!"

Entoma and CZ were slightly caught off guard by Lupus's suggestion but ultimately not surprised, she was the type to act after all.

"Very well…"

"Ok."

Lupus smiled wide and immediately began to explain, "Alright! So basically, I will give out two scenarios to choose from and you tell me which one you would rather take and why! The supreme beings used to play this all the time!"

Entoma and CZ were initially moderate in their reaction to Lupus but as soon as they heard her mention the supreme beings, their mood shifted to that of excitement and intrigue.

"Sooo let's see…would you rather…I got it! Spend the day assisting Demiurge or Albedo?"

CZ replied with a question rather than an answer, "In this situation, was it Lord Ainz that gave us the choice?"

"Shizu! This scenario is based off what you think, so just pick who you would want to help for a day. Let's just say you had some free time and Lord Ainz allowed you to do what you want!"

"I know! I would assist Demiurge, he doesn't mind my insects. I know Albedo doesn't visit Kyouhukou's lair too often, I think it's because of his family. She might feel the same about my insects, so yes, I would assist Demiurge. What about you Shizu?"

"Albedo is the overseer of the floor guardians; therefore, she might be in need of greater assistance. Demiurge oversees Nazarick's defenses, I am designed to know about the inner workings of Nazarick, so I might be more useful to him. I suppose it would depend on what they're duties consisted of that day, it might be more useful if I was given more-"

"Shizu! You're going off the rails again! Just pick who you would rather help! This is just a game, don't overanalyze it!" Lupus finally burst out, seeing that CZ was still taking things a little too seriously.

CZ glared at Lupus but decided to heed her words, "I would want to assist Albedo, she helps Lord Ainz quite often and I would feel like I was helping him more directly."

Entoma perked up at CZ's choice, "That's true…can I change my answer?"

"Nope! Answers are final! Next question-" Lupus had made up the rule on the spot, "-would you rather…fight someone using only your arms or legs?"

Entoma had no problem answering first once again, "Well…I would say my legs have more power, and I have four of them, the two I normally use wouldn't need to get involved. So yes, my true legs should get the job done!"

"No surprise there, what about you Shizu?"

"I suppose my arms are really my only viable option, although attacking directly isn't my strongest trait."

Lupus was happier to see CZ take the game a little less serious, she was worried that she would continue to break down every question.

"Yeah, you're a gunner so I guess those two choices don't really seem practical. Anyway, let's get more interesting with these! Would you rather…spend time at Sous-chef's bar with Yuri or Solution?

CZ was the first to answer this time, "Yuri, she would be fine with sitting quietly and enjoying our drinks."

"Really? I love Yuri, but Solution would be more fun to talk to, she doesn't mind me talking about my meals or describing my methods of killing." Entoma replied

"That was fast…okay, how about this! Have Lord Ainz order you to watch over a human child for five years in Nazarick or have Lord Ainz order you to watch over a human child in a human village for one year?"

Entoma and CZ took their time to think over these choices this time, the thought of being away from Nazarick for that long seemed like it would be a very miserable situation. On the other hand, having to watch over a weak human for such a long time came off as such a hassle. The previous questions had only taken into account a day, this hypothetical involved many years.

"Well…I guess I would watch the human child for a year at a human village. That way I wouldn't have to take care of it for such a long time, also I don't want to taint my experience at Nazarick by having a human at my side." Entoma reasoned.

"I would take care of the child at Nazarick, it would be safer there and I am needed for my knowledge of the inner workings within the tomb."

Lupus was surprised at Entoma's answer but understood why she would not want to bring a human to Nazarick, Shizu's answer was reasonable for herself. Lupus was finding this game pretty fun but was starting to feel left out during the choosing portion of the game, she decided to chime in this time.

"I would stay at the village for a year, taking care of the child! For the same reasons that Entoma gave. As for the others…I would assist Demiurge, fight with my arms, and hang out with Solution!"

"You and I seem to be on the same page Lupus!" Entoma proclaimed after hearing Lupus's answers, Lupus reacted with a wide grin.

"This was amusing and all, but Lupus check the map. How much longer until our next stop?"

Lupus took out the map and quickly offered an estimation, "We should make it to a fort sometime when the sun begins to go down! Wait, Shizu you don't want to keep playing the game?"

"Lupus, the game was entertaining but too inaccurate for my overall satisfaction, it would be more enjoyable if you offered a more detailed choice set."

"I liked it Lupus! But I guess it would be more fun if the situations were more specific…" Entoma knew what Shizu was hoping for as well.

"Really? Alright, I'll try to think of better questions…just give me a minute…"

Lupus was deep in thought trying to come up with more detailed questions, this was one of the few things they could do instead of constantly going over the mission. Although trying to come up with better questions was not Lupus's strong point, she would need some time to think it over. Entoma and Shizu were seemingly content with walking in silence, they were actually going over their answers in their heads, they found the game quite interesting.

 **A/N: Thanks for leaving a review, Vatsal Srivastav (I think) and PervySageChuck (lol). Thanks for the bookmarks and favorites. Still working on school, had some time for a short and sweet chapter.**


	9. On The Road Part 2

A young girl, currently garbed in a dark hooded robe, emerges from the wilderness and thoughtfully takes a look around the path that she finds herself on. Her dark hair curtains nearly all her features and hides what most would consider to be a cute and pure child's face, although her past would very much contradict that assumption. It was obvious by her wariness of being on a main road and her enveloped person within a hood and robe, that she wished to remain unseen by anyone. She would have preferred to remain off the path, but she was beginning to lose her sense of direction traveling within the forest and was getting tired of trudging through vegetation. Underneath her robe she hid a few supplies that she could travel lightly with; this included a water container, a small dagger and a minor cure ailment potion. The biggest oddity when it came to this young girl was her eyes, they were a light gray color and gave the impression that she was blind, but this was not at all the case.

By her estimation, it was a little past midday and she was confident that she could find a place to sleep before the night would become a real concern. Thus far, her sleeping locations consisted of abandoned buildings, caves, and even an overturned wagon, it's a good thing she was not someone who had ever experienced luxury. The only other problem that she was facing right now, was the hunger that was beginning to make itself known, her knowledge when it came to foraging within the forest was limited and she didn't want to risk getting majorly sick.

After her brief assessment of the path, she began to walk along the edge of the road, just in case the need for an escape into the forest came about suddenly. She kept her eyes forward and was attempting to ignore her aching feet, it had been getting worse throughout her travels and was finding herself wanting to take a nap. A nap, in her mind, would only be possible if she had somewhere she could hide herself though, she refused to leave her body completely exposed. With this in mind, she kept walking and decided that a decent group of shrubs or a hallowed log would do for a good enough nap spot.

 _Some walking later…_

After a while of walking along the path, the young girl could only settle on a spot that she could sit at for a short rest, sleeping would not be viable yet. She promptly sat herself on a log that had fallen in front of another tree, she could use the upright tree as a backrest and keep her body on alert. She was still within eyesight of anyone sharing the same path as her and she made sure to keep her ears open for anyone who might come along.

Only after a couple moments of sitting, her eyes began to flutter shut and her head was acting as if a huge weight was dragging it downwards. It felt as if she was stuck in a constant loop of nearly falling asleep and forcing her head up, in addition to biting her lip to slightly jolt her body awake. It wasn't long before she began to think about the prospect of surrendering herself to sleep and basically just hoping that no one would notice her just off the road. Eventually, she got up and positioned herself behind the fallen log and sat on the grass, leaving only her head and shoulders exposed to those traveling the same road. She brought her knees close and crossed her arms, trying to make herself as small as possible and then finally letting her eyes shut without any resistance.

It felt like only minutes passed by before her body jolted awake at the sound of people approaching. While she thought she would be able to have a quick nap, her natural reaction of avoiding all contact, overtook any other sensation and she just couldn't ignore a feeling that she had built up until now. She held her breath and listened closely to confirm what she heard, and it only took a moment to catch the sound of women conversing among one another. After assuring herself of the presence, she laid herself out behind the fallen log and steadied her breath, she would wait as long as needed in order for these women to pass by. It didn't matter if it had only been one person or even children, she would still opt to conceal herself and avoid any type of interaction.

The women's voices sounded as if they were just now passing her and she began to take a guess on just how many there were, she guessed at least three. Although as she was listening to the voices, the one doing the most talking abruptly stopped mid-sentence and whispered something that she couldn't quite make out. This occurrence immediately set off alarms within herself and she contemplated taking a peek over the log to see what was going on, it felt like they had been alerted to her presence. She chose to remain hidden and decided that she would start to crawl towards the woods, trudging through the wilderness was worth avoiding even the smallest potential danger.

She began to crawl, still on her stomach and careful to avoid making too much noise. The voices that she was hearing previously were still silent and she was regretting not paying close attention to what they were saying, the shock from being awoken suddenly had made her panic slightly. Normally, she would have kept her eyes forward and made sure that no one was in front of her, but she couldn't help but to look back for a split second to see if the people were somehow aware of her being there. From her low vantage point and the hood covering her face, she couldn't spot anyone and decided to keep crawling towards the wilderness. It was at this moment, as she turned her head back in front, that her gaze was met with a stranger's own.

The stranger in front of her was a woman with red hair and tanned skin, she was also laying on her stomach and was using her hands to hold her head up in a playful manner. This was the last thing she expected to see and her first reaction was to stare dumbly at the woman, until she suddenly spoke up.

"Hey, whatcha hiding for?"

The stranger's nonchalant ask was unexpected and the young girl had to take a moment to once again realize the reality of the situation, which was that a mysterious woman had managed to sneak around her and take position in front of her too.

The young girl's next move was to push herself up and make a run into the wilderness, attempting to sneak out didn't really seem like a realistic option anymore. She was now on her feet and made a break for it while the woman who surprised her still laid on the grass, with an amused expression. As she ran from the woman and towards the woods, she once again looked back to see if anybody was chasing after her but saw no one. She was relieved to see that no one was following her and continued to run until she decided to hide behind a tree that could conceal her whole figure. As she hid behind the tree, she steadied her breath and listened for any footsteps or sounds of people in general, of which there were none to be heard. She smiled slightly at the thought of evading the strangers that apparently knew her very whereabouts and thought about what her next move should be, more specifically what direction into the forest to run towards.

"Are you always this shy?"

These words sent a chill down her spine and she wanted to believe that her thoughts just changed voices or something of that manner, but she recognized this voice belonging to the woman who had surprised her before. Her head jerked to her left and just like moments ago, the red-haired woman was placed next to her with a soft smile. Standing next her, the woman was much taller and bent down in order to speak with the younger girl. Once again, the girl was speechless and was contemplating going for a drastic move, she began to reach for the dagger that she hid inside her cloak. This was the case until the taller woman once again spoke.

"I wouldn't do that."

The tall woman said this with an ominous tone and seemed like she was hoping for her words to not reach the child. The young girl stopped herself and thought about the situation more thoroughly, whoever this was, could clearly use magic of some kind to get ahead of her foes and seemed able to analyze the situation well. She decided to respond.

"Who are you?" She nearly whispered this and accidently let her timid nature show.

"I'm Lupus! Me and my sisters were walking along when we noticed you sleeping over to the side! Although, I guess you noticed us and decided to hide, then run, then try to take your weapon out…sooo what's your deal?"

"I, uh, I'm just traveling…" She was still on edge and was worried about the rest of Lupus's party.

Lupus responded to her short answer, "We are too! To be honest, the road game we've been playing has hit a roadblock and you might provide us with some entertainment while we get to our next spot!"

The young girl was taken back by Lupus's suggestion and immediately wanted to reject said offer, but as she was about to speak, her stomach decided to speak up in the form of a low growl. Lupus noticed this and quickly came up with a plan to persuade the child in front of her.

"I think my sister, Shizu, brought some food back from Na- I mean the village…Join us for a little while and I'm sure she would share some."

The girl didn't trust Lupus in the slightest but also realized that she wouldn't be able to outrun her, Lupus had some unnatural ability making her fast and sneaky. She decided for now, to go along with Lupus and eat before trying to get away later.

"Alright, I guess…"

"Great! Let's go, I told Shizu and Entoma to wait while I investigated you!"

 **A/N: Busy, busy, busy...but thanks for the bookmarks and favorites.**


	10. On The Road Part 3

"So, what should I call you?"

Lupus and the young girl were currently making their way out of the forest and back to the path, their encounter was sudden but had luckily not ended badly. Lupus kept herself slightly ahead of the young girl and was beginning to ask some questions before they would shortly find themselves back with her sisters.

"Ana." She said this hoping that a barrage of follow up questions would not follow.

"Ana? I guess that name suits you. You look young, how old are you? Were you always all by yourself? Also, why are you acting all shy and mysterious?"

Ana cringed slightly at the last question, disliking whenever anybody commented on her reserved character. She took a moment to think about a response that could address all these questions and shut down any further questions concerning herself but found it difficult to do so, at least without seeming rude about it. She decided to be straightforward and hope that Lupus would cease asking any further personal questions.

"I don't see how answering those questions would benefit anyone, besides we're back on the path. Are those your sisters?"

Lupus raised an eyebrow after hearing Ana's response to her questions and then switched her attention from that, to her waiting sisters ahead.

"Yeah! Come on, I'll introduce you!"

Ana continued to trail behind Lupus, mentally preparing to once again meet new people. She was able to spot both of Lupus's sisters and tried to visually inspect them before any real introductions were made, mostly to see if any dangers were immediately present. They were both much shorter than Lupus and she assumed that they were much younger as well. Ana also noticed that one of the girls had an eyepatch and the other was nearly covering her entire person under a cloak and mask. This, along with Lupus's mace that she took notice of a while ago, told her that these people had some experience in combat. The girl with the eyepatch had obviously been injured sometime ago, the cloaked girl might've had some experience in assassinations and Lupus obviously had her strange magic that allowed her to conceal her presence and travel quickly. Overall, Ana still believed Lupus to be the most capable but chose to not judge too harshly until she met the other two girls.

"Shizu! Entoma! This is Ana, she was the one that was hiding behind that log and then led me on a little chase afterwards! She's a little shy and doesn't like answering questions but I think that makes her more interesting!"

Ana shot a quick glare towards Lupus for describing her in such a way but recouped herself to begin speaking with Entoma and Shizu.

"Hi, like your sister said, my name is Ana. Which of you is Shizu?"

"I am." Shizu spoke softly and didn't sound too interested in meeting Ana.

Ana noticed Shizu's impassivity and directed her attention to Entoma, "So you're Entoma then."

"Yep!"

Ana nodded in response to Entoma but then found herself not having anything else to say, she could have brought up the food that Lupus mentioned but could only bring her hands together underneath her cloak and lower her head. She didn't foresee herself sticking around this group for long but still did not want to ask these strangers for anything, it just wasn't in her personality to do so.

"Oh! Shizu you said you had some snacks in your pack, right? I kinda told Ana that you would share some of it, so…" Lupus suddenly announced, gesturing for Shizu to offer some.

Shizu, in return, offered Lupus a slightly annoyed look but proceeded to take off her backpack and open it, looking for the few snacks that she brought along from Nazarick. She pulled out something that was wrapped with cloth and offered it to Ana.

Ana took a second to inspect whatever it was that Shizu was handing her and carefully took it, not recognizing it through looks alone. She unwrapped it from the cloth encasing it and noticed how uniform it was in shape, it also seemed to be made up of various ingredients.

"It's a granola bar…" Shizu said after witnessing Ana's slight confusion.

Ana still wasn't sure what that was but was able to recognize a few ingredients within the food item itself. While she was debating taking a bite of the unrecognizable food, her stomach growled, resulting in an embarrassed look from herself and finally deciding that she was probably overthinking it. She took a small bite and was surprised to find how sweet and chewy it was, her surprise didn't go unnoticed by Lupus.

"Good huh? I bet you've never had anything that tasty! Now that I've delivered on my end, how about we get going?"

Ana simply nodded and decided to travel with these three for a short time before she would attempt to break off on her own again, probably sometime during the night, since it was approaching.

 _Some traveling later…_

The trip with the group of four, so far had been quiet, largely considering that Ana was not interested in answering questions or even talking about anything else. It didn't help that Lupus was the only one trying to get something out of her, Entoma was attentive but not asking much and Shizu looked completely uninterested.

The sun was beginning to set, and Ana was the only one who looked to show any signs of fatigue, she was surprised to see that nobody else was faltering in any way. She thought that at least Shizu would show signs of getting tired, considering that she was carrying supplies but even she was steady in her demeanor. Ana's feet were once again beginning to ache and she had only gotten a little sleep before the whole ordeal with Lupus occurred. She wanted to stop and rest for a while but didn't want to ask everyone to halt just for her. After some mulling over her situation, she decided that she would attempt to break off from the sisters using this reason as an out.

"Lupus..." Lupus directed her attention to Ana who continued, "I'm getting tired and want to rest, it doesn't look like you guys are though, perhaps it would be best if you kept going on your way without me."

Lupus took a moment to process what Ana had just told her and cheerfully replied, "That's not a big deal! We could go for a rest! Entoma, Shizu, Ana wants to take a break!"

Entoma and Shizu both drew their attention to Lupus, then to Ana who sheepishly tilted her head down, not expecting for Lupus to force a dead stop within the whole group. While the sisters didn't necessarily seem bothered by Ana's need for a break, she still felt embarrassed by the fact that she was the only one that was exhausted.

The group had strayed slightly off the path to settle in a small clearing that surrounded itself with trees and some sizable boulders. Ana had announced that she would retrieve some wood in order to start a fire, as a chill was beginning to make itself quite noticeable. She left to do so, also leaving the three girls to their own devices.

"Lupus…" CZ had softly called, as soon as Ana left.

"Hmm? What is it Shizu?"

"We should not act according to this human, I suggest we investigate whether this child has any significant abilities or information, then allow me a little time to write the report for the day and go on our way."

Lupus was surprised to see that Shizu was getting a little impatient and was about to ask why this was the case, until Entoma inserted herself into the conversation.

"Shizu, are you getting impatient because that girl doesn't want to talk or travel with us?"

It was true that Ana seemed to avoid any question asked of her, but the girls also noticed that she wasn't keen on traveling with them for long. Besides Ana's eluding of any question, she had also been keeping a significant distance from the three of them, it was as if she was preparing to run at any moment. While Lupus and to some degree, Entoma, showed some interest in Ana, CZ was beginning to think that Ana was just a common human whose weakness showed through her shyness.

CZ replied, "That girl, Ana, clearly does not want to travel with us, yes. I also think it is important to see that we are hindering our own progress by adjusting ourselves with her incapability. Like I said, let's ask her again about herself or anything she might know and then we will stay for some time for me to write our report."

Lupus offered her sister a soft smile before speaking, "Shizu, how about we ask her again but if she denies us any answers, we just keep working on it. After all, it might take a little more time before she decides to open herself up. Also, we aren't supposed to be racing to our destination, right?"

Shizu immediately replied with an expression that slightly conveyed realization, "Lupus, if your finding yourself searching for something to keep yourself occupied with, why not discuss the mission directly?"

"Shizu! We've already done that! Besides there's really no harm in trying to extract some information from her, it might yield some interesting results! You're with me, right Entoma?"

Entoma turned her head from CZ to Lupus in thought, "Hmm…I guess it's what we're supposed to be doing, Lord Ainz told us to learn things about this world after all."

CZ simply stared at her sisters before crossing her arms and saying, "Fine, but seeing as Ana is as reserved as she is, I wish to attempt a different approach in terms of questioning."

 _Back with Ana…_

Ana had underneath her arm, a bundle of sticks that she found suitable for a fire, it was not a lot, but she had other thoughts running across her mind. A while after temporarily leaving the group, she had considered making her leave permanent by simply traveling through the woods again. This thought was short lived though, as she decided that her tiredness was in fact, too prevalent at the moment. Her thoughts then ran back to the three girls that she had met today, while they didn't seem significantly hostile, she knew that people could wait for the right time to make their move. She was slightly paranoid as to why these girls, or Lupus as least, seemed interested in getting to know her, it didn't make much sense in her own mind. The only thing that could have possibly caused any intrigue within strangers, was her pale colored eyes, which did hold a secret but one that she did not intend to share. Ana figured that if she kept avoiding any questions about herself, that the girls would become disinterested in her and allow her to fade into obscurity. With this in her mind, she decided that the bundle of wood she collected was enough for a little heat during the night and began to make her way back to the group.

As she was able to recognize some of her surroundings, Ana knew that she would soon find herself back with the other girls, she prepared to quickly announce that she would be sleeping after the fire was started. Ana crossed the final bit of wilderness that separated her from the girls and instantly noticed something strange, a warm orange glow emitting from where they had decided to stop. There was no mistaking it, that light was the product of a fire and a decent sized one at that.

As she finally came in view of their resting spot, she saw a pile of neatly stacked logs, in which a fire was being produced from. She wasn't just surprised by the fire itself, but by the way it was seemingly brought out from nowhere. Sitting close by and against a boulder, was Shizu, without her sisters anywhere to be seen. Ana was taken back by the fire but that itself was nothing compared to the odd sight of Shizu seemingly waiting for Ana's return. Ana immediately found herself tensing up at the situation, becoming suspicious as to why things were as they are now. Shizu had been staring at her since her arrival and was seemingly waiting for Ana to address the situation, which she opted to do so.

"Shizu? Where are your sisters?" Ana asked, attempting to sound indifferent about the situation.

"Lupus and Entoma decided to go out hunting, they are capable of doing it at night. Before they left, we started this fire, which can be fueled by your contribution-" Shizu looked at the small bundle Ana held, "however small."

Ana felt slightly embarrassed by her small bundle of wood but walked forward to set it next to the crackling fire. Afterwards, she finally sat herself against a tree that was opposite to that of Shizu and brought her knees close to further trap heat during this cold night. As she was being warmed by the fire and her own body, she noticed that Shizu still had her sights on her, although this time she wasn't sure what else she was supposed to say. Ana thought further about Lupus and Entoma going out to hunt and figured she could ask Shizu about that, specifically about the abilities they held that allowed them to hunt at night.

"Uh…so, Shizu, just what kind of people are your sisters that they can successfully hunt during the night?"

Shizu's face and answer did not falter in the slightest, "We are all simply optimized to have certain skills. You seem to be somewhat observant and careful about the world around you, why is that?"

Ana wasn't surprised that Shizu turned the question on her but decided to keep her previous track record of dodging questions, "It doesn't matter at all who I am, you know I'm actually pretty tired, it's probably for the best if I just go to sl-"

"Come."

Ana was cut off by Shizu's request, her command had been followed by her patting the ground next to herself. While it had been a command, it certainly didn't come off as one, as Shizu's soft voice negated any threating tone in her request. Ana was clearly hesitant to follow through with Shizu's order, but she did so in order to avoid any conflict or awkwardness. As she got up to move beside Shizu, she took hold of the dagger she kept underneath her cloak, refusing to let her guard down, even to the non-threatening girl. As she cautiously neared Shizu, she used her free hand to balance herself as she sat down next to her.

The two girls sat in silence for a moment before Shizu grabbed her backpack, which was sitting next to her as well, and dug inside to bring out one of her snacks. She unwrapped it to reveal another granola bar and proceeded to offer it to Ana.

Ana took the snack and said "Thanks." Before quickly taking a bite.

Shizu observed Ana for a second and began, "Ana, why is it that you refuse to share any information regarding yourself?"

Ana swallowed her food before speaking, "Like I said, it doesn't matter who I am. Your sister Lupus continually asked questions and now you, can I ask why you're so persistent?"

"Me and my sisters find ourselves in a unique situation, that's all I am willing to say, but because of this unique situation, we are in the process of gathering information in general. You alone hold no interest to us, it is accurate to say that you are simply a small detail that could help us understand certain scenarios in the future." As Shizu explained, her eyes were glued to the fire in front of them and her speech was unbroken.

Ana had proceeded to take another bite of the bar and swallow it as Shizu said this, she was trying to understand but found Shizu's explanation vague and confusing. The one thing that Shizu mentioned that did relieve Ana was the fact that they did not necessarily hold a great interest in her. If this was the hard truth, that meant that Ana was not in danger of being kidnapped or killed later. Ana came to the realization that unless this was some kind of long con, she was in no danger with these girls for now; her grip on the concealed dagger loosened and she relaxed her shoulders a bit.

She found the warmth of the fire comforting and the snack that was given to her was still as tasty as the last one. She found herself at ease next to Shizu, a state that was assisted by the fact that it was only the two of them conversing around the fire. While Lupus and Entoma were still potential threats, albeit low possibility threats, she felt better knowing that Shizu was level headed.

Ana swallowed and spoke, "Look, you don't seem like a bad person, I just have a tough time with people. If what you're saying is true, then I guess I don't mind sharing just a little about myself."

Shizu finally turned hear head to face Ana, showing her that the eye-patched girl was now fully engrossed in their personal exchange and Ana continued.

"I guess to start, yes I have been by myself for a while now but there was a time when I had…good people around me. I'm traveling like you guys seem to be doing but I don't really have a destination, I'm just making sure I survive. You guys found me, and I ran from you, the reason being that I've had encounters with a lot of bad people in the past."

Ana had decided to share something about herself, but found it difficult getting into detail, she was unconsciously still trying to keep herself safe through secrecy. Shizu noticed that Ana was doing this as well and decided to ask more specific questions.

"Ana, you keep a weapon underneath your cloak, are you proficient with it?"

Ana was surprised at Shizu's observance but answered quickly, "Uh, yeah a little, I'm pretty agile when I'm not tired or hungry but lack muscle to do anything besides slashing. What about you Shizu? I saw that Lupus had a mace and Entoma probably keeps her weapon concealed like me, but you don't seem to have anything, unless it's under that coat."

"I am armed, yes."

Ana nodded in confirmation and decided to further ask another question, having brought up Shizu's sisters.

"Your sister Lupus is kind of…excitable, has she always been this way?"

Shizu noticeably took a moment to think, "It is the way she was created."

Ana found her phrasing a bit odd but continued, "And Entoma, she seems very…wary, I suppose. I mean that her stare seems a bit…unrelenting. During our walk, while Lupus was attempting to question me, Entoma's gaze was something that I couldn't help but notice. I suppose it's safe to say that Entoma is cautious of new people too?"

Shizu took another moment to think, "Her appetite likely just got to her."

Ana found this answer odd as well, but decided not to press the issue, she herself was just as vague.

"Ana, I have noticed that your eyes are pale in color, is there any significance to that?"

Ana was a bit struck by Shizu's sudden and specific question but answered quickly, "N-no."

After her answer, Ana bit her lip and mentally scolded herself for stuttering during her reply, Shizu was observant and would probably notice this. Shizu sat with her same blank expression and simply nodded at her reply and then suggested that Ana get some sleep. Ana then proceeded to get up and return to the tree she had originally been sitting at, bringing her knees in and letting her head drop. As Ana slept in her unusual manner, Shizu once again dug in her backpack to bring out the materials necessary to write her report for the day. Shizu began with any details that she didn't include from their time at the village and wrote in great detail about the rest of the day.

As Shizu finished with the report, she heard footsteps approaching their camp and was able to discern them as Lupus and Entoma's. She looked up to see Lupus and Entoma interested in her immediately, they wasted no time in making their way over to her and sitting side by side. Lupus was the first to speak up and was obviously excited to talk with Shizu.

"So, Shizu, what did you find out?" Lupus said with some intrigue in her voice.

"Yeah! Oh, and is she…asleep?" Entoma inquired as well.

"Yes, Ana is currently sleeping. We spoke for a while and I managed to find out that she is indeed by herself, she said this had been the case for a while. I also found out that she has no destination in mind right now. I-"

"Really? Ugh, I thought she would be more interesting than that! I guess you were right Shizu, I guess we can get a move on huh?" Lupus suddenly interrupted.

"Wait." Lupus and Entoma were surprised by Shizu's Interjection, but they listened closely.

"Ana was vague regarding her past and there might be more to that, but more importantly, I suspect there is something she is trying to keep hidden. It may turn out to be nothing, but I suggest we try to get this information out of her."

Entoma turned her head to face Ana and replied, "So, you think she has some talent or something?"

CZ thought for a moment before deciding that her theory may be true, "I believe that may be the case."

"See! I told you there was something to her! Let's try to keep her around for a while, at least until we find out what she's hiding, plus it might be more entertaining if we kept her around!" Lupus said, ending her statement with a wide grin.

CZ simply nodded and Entoma leaned against the boulder to decompress for the rest of the night.

 **A/N: Thanks to** **Lutemis wedgegeck for the reviews, also for the bookmarks and favorites.**


	11. On The Road Part 4

Ana woke up to find that the sun was only beginning to light up the land. After her talk with Shizu, she had been able to sleep more comfortably throughout the night and figured that at the very least, these girls weren't crazy. Although the thought of Shizu just being an incredibly good deceiver did cross her mind, she ultimately let her exhaustion from the day overlap her judgement.

Ana had quickly rubbed the remaining grogginess from her face and began to look around the camp, expecting to find the girls asleep or recently waken like herself. She was able to see the remains of the fire, which still had some glowing embers within it, and looked up to find only one of the girls sitting in front of her, Entoma. Entoma was sitting against the boulder that Shizu was occupying last night and had her knees brought in, presumably to keep warm like Ana herself had done throughout the night. Out of the three girls, Entoma had been the one that Ana had the least amount of contact so far, needless to say that she was going to try and get a read on her while they were alone.

"Uh, hey Entoma, where are your sisters?" Ana said as she looked around to make sure that she didn't just overlook them by mistake.

"They decided to take a walk to explore some of the immediate area."

Ana raised a brow at this, not because she was surprised that Shizu and Lupus decided to go for a walk so early, but because of Entoma's expression as she answered. Entoma still had half her face covered but even with that, Ana still found her gaze somewhat unnerving. When most people spoke, their face would move slightly, or their eyes would move and blink, but Ana had found that Entoma's eyes were almost stone-like. Ana knew that assassins, which is what she believed Entoma to be, often held good poker faces but this was on another level. Ana stood up, stretching and keeping her eyes locked on Entoma, but choosing to ask a quick question.

"So, Entoma, I assume you got some decent rest last night?"

Entoma thought for a second before responding, "I don't feel tired, you were kinda struggling yesterday though, right?"

Ana stopped stretching and her face heated up slightly at Entoma's words, "Uh, yes, yesterday, before I met you guys, I had already traveled for a while so…"

As Ana trailed off with her last words, she brought her hands together and awkwardly stood as she waited for Entoma to respond with anything. To her slight embarrassment, it seemed like Entoma was content with just staring at her, still without any emotion through facial or body expression. After several seconds of staring at each other, Ana decided to ask another question.

"Um, Entoma, I've noticed, or actually have been wondering, why you cover up all of your body like that?" Ana decided to try and confirm whether Entoma was truly some type of assassin or not.

"Hmm…Why do you?"

Ana had almost forgotten that she also hides herself underneath her own cloak, it had been so long that she had been doing so. "I just like to keep a low profile I guess."

"Me too!" Entoma quickly responded.

At this point, Entoma stood up and turned her head towards the woods. Ana witnessed this and looked towards the wilderness too, guessing that Lupus and Shizu were probably returning from their walk. To her surprise, it wasn't the pair of sisters, but a lone animal. A deer had seemed to wander within their camp and didn't look to be fazed by the presence of the two girls, likely because they were standing still. Ana observed the animal as it began to sniff the ground and let a faint smile form on her face, she had a slight soft spot for animals. As she was observing the animal, she looked over to Entoma, who was also studying the deer with her intense gaze. Ana didn't find it unusual that Entoma's stare was unrelenting as it had been previously but found herself feeling somewhat unnerved at her demeanor; like that of a predator who was trying desperately to hold back. As Ana's attention was now fully focused on Entoma she began to pick up on other things that she had not noticed until this animal suddenly appeared. For once, Entoma's eyes had some life in them but it was only comparable to those of a hungry animal, she was fidgeting with her arms and even brought one arm up to wipe her face for some reason. Ana could only observe Entoma through her figure and eyes but began to wonder how she organized any of her weaponry underneath her cloak, assuming it was weapons that she was fidgeting with.

"Hey, you finally got up!" Lupus cheered as she brought a hand down onto Ana's shoulder.

Ana let out a sudden gasp and turned to face Lupus who stood directly behind her, having appeared without warning. After her quick turnaround, Ana looked back to see the deer gone and Entoma's demeanor changed, along with her walking towards them.

Ana again faced Lupus, "Lupus, uh yeah I'm up, where's Shizu?"

"I'm here."

Ana turned around towards Entoma's direction to see Shizu emerging from the woods and calmly walking towards the group. Ana began to wonder if Lupus had deliberately chosen to sneak up behind her in order to scare her, but decided to not address it, to avoid any embarrassment. After everyone converged on each other, Ana decided to speak up about her plans to separate from the group. Although she admittedly found the girls interesting, she still decided that it would be best for everyone if she split off from the group. Ana wasn't blind to the fact that the girls clearly had the stamina to travel farther and still found herself feeling occasionally out of place within them, there was something within the girls that she couldn't quite make out.

"Well, since you all are here, I think it would be best if we finally went our own ways. Thanks for the food you promised Lupus, I-"

"Oh! Ana, we decided that you would travel with us!" Lupus suddenly interrupted.

Ana was caught off guard by Lupus's announcement and looked over to Shizu and Entoma to gauge their reactions, more specifically to see if Lupus had suddenly decided on this or if they truly agreed as a group. Entoma and Shizu were able to detect Ana's suspicion and nodded to affirm what Lupus had just announced, still leaving Ana with a concerned look.

Ana cleared her throat and began, "I, uh, well thanks, but I don't know if that's what's best for all of us. You guys obviously have goals that I would simply get in the way of, I don't mind separating. Also, I just don't see the reason…"

Ana said all this slowly shifting her gaze from Lupus, to their various surroundings. Lupus could only offer a confused look that quickly shifted to one that simply expressed confidence.

"Hmm, really? Shizu! Why don't you give Ana here some encouragement!" Lupus said as she roped her arm around CZ to bring her closer to Ana. Ana brought her attention back to Shizu and waited to see what she would say.

Shizu let out a small sigh within Lupus's hold and addressed Ana, "Ana, we believe that our traveling together could provide some benefits, which could help both of us. You have stated previously that you have no destination in mind, so it is not hindering your progress. When we met you, you were hungry, and we were able to help you with that. I've also told you that we are in the process of acquiring general information from the world and with your travel experience, could aid us in things we may not know about."

Ana was surprised by Shizu's sell but quickly realized that she didn't cover the obvious difference in their stamina. "I can see your points, but you guys can obviously cover more ground than me and I would just slow you down."

"That's not a big deal! I could help you out if you're ever feeling to out of it!" Lupus chimed in.

Ana was even more taken back by the fact that Lupus was seemingly trying hard to reel her in with them. She began to think about the benefits for herself and tried to envision what it could be like to travel with the trio in a more long term basis. Ana considered the fact that they indeed did help her with her hunger and they seemed to be capable of protecting themselves. As she noticed that the three girls were waiting for her reply, she made the decision to take their offer for now in order to have a stable source of food, security and at the very least, some interaction with people.

Ana sighed, "Alright, I suppose it could work out, but I can't promise to provide any useful information for the future. I travel a lot but don't necessarily know about everything…"

"Great! It looks like the day has finally begun! Let's get moving! Shizu give Ana another snack for the road and let's get back on the path!" Lupus said as she unwrapped herself from Shizu and began to walk towards the path with Entoma tagging by her side.

As CZ began to walk behind Lupus and Entoma, Ana chose to walk beside her and figured that she would make for the most relaxed travel partner.

 _Elsewhere…_

Kruath traveled along the empty road, only having one thing running through his mind. After the events that took place only a short time ago, he had decided to investigate the very curious matter on his own. Whatever group it was that had slaughtered the Oxmen back in the cave hideout, were clearly proficient in what they did. At first, he had quickly dismissed the strange occurrences back in the village to that of a lone killer, but after everything that happened, he felt like the situation was becoming clearer.

To Kruath, a powerful group was working in the shadows somewhere, but not necessarily in secret as some of the gruesome displays had shown. This peaked his interest and whether that meant that he wanted to join this group wasn't really the point at the moment, he simply wanted to know what all this meant and how it played into the world.

His theories ranged from the group being something official who exterminated bandits, to a group who also made a living off crime and simply saw the Oxmen as a competitor. Needless to say, that Kruath's theories were very wide currently and he would need to find more clues regarding this mysterious group.

Kruath had previously made his way back to the village and decided to have a drink at their bar, being able to do so since he was never spotted by any of the villagers during the raid. While having his drink, he overheard some of the villagers talking about the strange girls who had recently visited the village. Kruath decided that he would run with this information for a couple of reasons. First, because the village never got any visitors and secondly because it was the only other event the coincided with the previous happenings. He would have asked the villagers for information directly but did not want any word of his investigation getting out, information after all, could travel faster than himself. He had heard that they were traveling North and began to follow the trail as such, he would simply need to keep an ear out for any interesting information regarding the group. The only thing he knew was that this group had females within its ranks that could match a description given to him by his former boss.

 **A/N: Honestly, a little burned out, but I'll put out when I can. Thanks to Fangiii for the review, glad you liked some moments. Thanks for the bookmarks and favorites.**


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